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   33 Arthur Schopenhauer

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1377 Arthur Schopenhauer
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1:A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

2:One should use common words to say uncommon things    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

3:He who does not enjoy solitude will not love freedom.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

4:A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

5:Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

6:Genius lives only one story above madness, ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena,

7:Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

8:Fame is something which must be won; honor is something which must not be lost. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

9:True appreciation of his own value will make a man really indifferent to insult. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

10:Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

11:Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

12:Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

13:Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

14:The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

15:Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

16:Every separation gives a foretaste of death, and every meeting a foretaste of the resurrection. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, 'Psychological Observations',

17:To be alone is the fate of all great minds-a fate deplored at times, but still always chosen as the less grievous of two evils.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

18:Whatever torch we kindle, and whatever space it may illuminate, our horizon will always remain encircled by the depth of night.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

19:All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

20:Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

21:Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

22:A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

23:They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice... that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

24:Sometimes I speak to men and women just as a little girl speaks to her doll. She knows, of course, that the doll does not understand her, but she creates for herself the joy of communication through a pleasant and conscious self-deception. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

25:A man's delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

26:As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, [T9],

27:No little part of the torment of existence lies in this, that time is continually pressing upon us, never letting us take breath, but always coming after us, like a taskmaster with a whip. If at any moment time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the misery of boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, Studies in Pessimism,

28:The presence of a thought is like the presence of our beloved. We imagine we shall never forget this thought, and that this loved one could never be indifferent to us. But out of sight out of mind! The finest thought runs the risk of being irrevocably forgotten if it is not written down, and the dear one of being forsaken if we do not marry her. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

29:The real meaning of persona is a mask, such as actors were accustomed to wear on the ancient stage; and it is quite true that no one shows himself as he is, but wears his mask and plays his part. Indeed, the whole of our social arrangements may be likened to a perpetual comedy; and this is why a man who is worth anything finds society so insipid, while a blockhead is quite at home in it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays Vol 4,

30:The largest library in disorder is not so useful as a smaller but orderly one; in the same way the greatest amount of knowledge, if it has not been worked out in one's own mind, is of less value than a much smaller amount that has been fully considered. For it is only when a man combines what he knows from all sides, and compares one truth with another, that he completely realises his own knowledge and gets it into his power. A man can only think over what he knows, therefore he should learn something; but a man only knows what he has pondered. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

31:Reading is merely a substitute for one's own thoughts. A man allows his thoughts to be put into leading-strings. Further, many books serve only to show how many wrong paths there are, and how widely a man may stray if he allows himself to be led by them. But he who is guided by his genius, that is to say, he who thinks for himself, who thinks voluntarily and rightly, possesses the compass wherewith to find the right course. A man, therefore, should only read when the source of his own thoughts stagnates; which is often the case with the best of minds. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

32:. . . misfortune has its uses; for, as our bodily frame would burst asunder if the pressure of the atmosphere was removed, so, if the lives of men were relieved of all need, hardship and adversity; if everything they took in hand were successful, they would be so swollen with arrogance that, though they might not burst, they would present the spectacle of unbridled folly--nay, they would go mad. And I may say, further, that a certain amount of care or pain or trouble is necessary for every man at all times. A ship without ballast is unstable and will not go straight. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

33:It will generally be found that, as soon as the terrors of life reach the point at which they outweigh the terrors of death, a man will put an end to his life. But the terrors of death offer considerable resistance; they stand like a sentinel at the gate leading out of this world. Perhaps there is no man alive who would not have already put an end to his life, if this end had been of a purely negative character, a sudden stoppage of existence. There is something positive about it; it is the destruction of the body; and a man shrinks from that, because his body is the manifestation of the will to live. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

*** WISDOM TROVE ***

1:Each day is a little life. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

2:Unrest is the mark of existence. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

3:Life without pain has no meaning. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

4:Compassion is the basis of morality. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

5:Religion is the metaphysics of the masses. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

6:Time is that in which all things pass away. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

7:Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

8:The truth can wait, for it lives a long life. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

9:Everything that happens, happens of necessity. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

10:fate gives us the hand, and we play the cards. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

11:One should use common words to say uncommon things ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

12:Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

13:There is something in us that is wiser than our head. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

14:Apart from man, no being wonders at its own experience. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

15:The present is the only reality and the only certainty. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

16:It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

17:After your death you will be what you were before your birth. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

18:A writer should never be brief at the expense of being clear. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

19:History is the long, difficult and confused dream of Mankind. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

20:Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

21:What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

22:That which knows all things and is known by none is the subject. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

23:The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

24:The eternal being... , as it lives in us, also lives in every animal. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

25:Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

26:Marrying means doing whatever possible to become repulsed of each other ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

27:To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

28:One can forget everything, everything, only not oneself, one's own being. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

29:Life is neither to be wept over nor to be laughed at but to be understood. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

30:All wanting comes from need, therefore from lack, therefore from suffering. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

31:The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

32:Always to see the general in the particular is the very foundation of genius. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

33:The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

34:This is the case with many learned persons; they have read themselves stupid. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

35:A happy life is impos­si­ble; the best that a man can attain is a heroic life. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

36:To desire immortality is to desire the eternal perpetuation of a great mistake ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

37:The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

38:Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

39:... this our world, which is so real, with all its suns and milky ways is-nothing. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

40:Materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

41:The alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater value. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

42:Most men are so thoroughly subjective that nothing really interests them but themselves. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

43:There is only one inborn error. and that is the notion that we exist in order to be happy. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

44:The Universe is a dream dreamed by a single dreamer where all the dream characters dream too. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

45:There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

46:We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

47:Freedom of the press is to the machinery of the state what the safety valve is to the steam engine. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

48:Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

49:To desire immortality for the individual is really the same as wanting to perpetuate an error forever. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

50:It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that makes the philosopher. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

51:Marrying means, to grasp blindfolded into a sack hoping to find out an eel out of an assembly of snakes. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

52:For the world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls and on the other the devils in it. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

53:To call the world God is not to explain it; it is only to enrich our language with a superfluous synonym. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

54:You must treat a work of art like a great man: stand before it and wait patiently till it deigns to speak. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

55:Man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

56:Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

57:Life is a task to be done. It is a fine thing to say defunctus est; it means that the man has done his task. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

58:Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

59:I believe that when death closes our eyes we shall awaken to a light, of which our sunlight is but the shadow. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

60:There is one respect in which beasts show real wisdom... their quiet, placid enjoyment of the present moment. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

61:Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

62:Life to the great majority is only a constant struggle for mere existence, with the certainty of losing it at last. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

63:The life of every individual is really always a tragedy, but gone through in detail, it has the character of a comedy. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

64:If God made this world, then i would not want to be the God. It is full of misery and distress that it breaks my heart. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

65:We call dialectic the higher movement of reason in which utterly separate terms pass over into each other spontaneously. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

66:Consciousness is the mere surface of our minds, of which, as of the earth, we do not know the inside, but only the crust. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

67:Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

68:Talent works for money and fame; the motive which moves genius to productivity is, on the other hand, less easy to determine. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

69:Every satisfaction he attains lays the seeds of some new desire, so that there is no end to the wishes of each individual will. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

70:There is not a grain of dust, not an atom that can become nothing, yet man believes that death is the annhilation of his being. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

71:Money alone is absolutely good, because it is not only a concrete satisfaction of one need in particular; it is an abstract satisfaction of all. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

72:Physics is unable to stand on its own feet, but needs a metaphysics on which to support itself, whatever fine airs it may assume towards the latter. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

73:We grope about in the labyrinth of our life and in the obscurity of our investigations; bright moments illuminate our path like flashes of lightning. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

74:It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big. It is an indivisible point, drawn out and magnified by the powerful lenses of Time and Space. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

75:... a genuine work of art, can never be false, nor can it be discredited through the lapse of time, for it does not present an opinion but the thing itself. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

76:To use many words to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

77:It is the fashion of youth to dash about in abstractions – but the man who has learnt to know life steers clear of the abstract ‘either‑or’, and keeps to the concrete. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

78:Memory works like the collection glass in the Camera obscura: it gathers everything together and therewith produces a far more beautiful picture than was present originally. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

79:When you look back on your life, it looks as though it were a plot, but when you are into it, it's a mess: just one surprise after another. Then, later, you see it was perfect. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

80:This world could not have been the work of an all-loving being, but that of a devil, who had brought creatures into existence in order to delight in the sight of their sufferings. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

81:In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theatre before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

82:The scenes of our life are like pictures done in rough mosaic. Looked at close, they produce no effect. There is nothing beautiful to be found in them, unless you stand some distance off. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

83:Whatever folly men commit, be their shortcomings or their vices what they may, let us exercise forbearance; remember that when these faults appear in others it is our follies and vices that we behold. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

84:Shame on such a morality that is worthy of pariahs, and that fails to recognize the eternal essence that exists in every living thing, and shines forth with inscrutable significance from all eyes that see the sun! ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

85:The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

86:No greater mistake can be made than to imagine that what has been written latest is always the more correct; that what is written later on is an improvement on what was written previously; and that every change means progress. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

87:The deep pain that is felt at the death of every friendly soul arises from the feeling that there is in every individual something which is inexpressible, peculiar to him alone, and is, therefore, absolutely and irretrievably lost. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

88:That a god like Jehovah should have created this world of misery and woe, out of pure caprice, and because he enjoyed doing it, and should then have clapped his hands in praise of his own work, and declared everything to be very good-that will not do at all! ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

89:That human life must be some kind of mistake is sufficiently proved by the simple observation that man is a compound of needs which are hard to satisfy; that their satisfaction achieves nothing but a painless condition in which he is only given over to boredom . . . ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

90:A man finds himself, to his great astonishment, suddenly existing, after thousands and thousands of years of non-existence: he lives for a little while; and then, again, comes an equally long period when he must exist no more. The heart rebels against this, and feels that it cannot be true. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

91:Two Chinamen visiting Europe went to the theatre for the first time. One of them occupied himself with trying to understand the theatrical machinery, which he succeeded in doing. The other, despite his ignorance of the language, sought to unravel the meaning of the play. The former is like the astronomer, the latter the philosopher. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

92:The greatest wisdom is to make the enjoyment of the present the supreme object of life; because that is the only reality, all else being merely the play of thought. On the other hand, such a course might just as well be called the greatest folly: for that which in the next moment exists no more, and vanishes utterly, like a dream, can never be worth a serious effort. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

93:The real meaning of persona is a mask, such as actors were accustomed to wear on the ancient stage; and it is quite true that no one shows himself as he is, but wears his mask and plays his part. Indeed, the whole of our social arrangements may be likened to a perpetual comedy; and this is why a man who is worth anything finds society so insipid, while a blockhead is quite at home in it. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

94:A man never is happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbor with mast and rigging gone. And then, it is all one whether he has been happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove

95:Because Christian morality leaves animals out of account, they are at once outlawed in philosophical morals; they are mere &

*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***

1:the world is my idea ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

2:Each day is a little life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

3:The deep pain that is felt ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

4:My body and my will are one. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

5:The world is my representation ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

6:Everybody's friend is nobody's. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

7:Scoundrels are always sociable. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

8:The world is my representation. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

9:Unrest is the mark of existence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

10:Life without pain has no meaning. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

11:Truth is most beautiful undraped. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

12:Behind the cross stands the devil. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

13:Better alone than amongst traitors. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

14:Compassion is the basis of morality. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

15:Fate shuffles the cards and we play. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

16:Life is a constant process of dying. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

17:Authority and example lead the world. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

18:For our improvement we need a mirror. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

19:Più intelligenza avrai, più soffrirai. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

20:A hedge between keeps friendship green. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

21:Compassion is the basis of all morality ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

22:Human life must be some form of mistake. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

23:Man shows his character best in trifles. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

24:Money is human happiness in the abstract. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

25:The old woman dies, the burden is lifted. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

26:A única felicidade é a de não ter nascido. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

27:[B]eauty is always an affair of knowledge. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

28:Genius lives only one storey above madness ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

29:Newspapers are the second hand of history. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

30:omnis motus, quo celerior, eo magis motus. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

31:Religion is the metaphysics of the masses. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

32:Restlessness is the hallmark of existence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

33:The life of a fool is worse than death[1]. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

34:There is an underlying unity in all things ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

35:Truth that is naked is the most beautiful. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

36:A word too much always defeats its purpose. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

37:Motives are causes experienced from within. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

38:Pantheism is only a polite form of atheism. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

39:Time is that in which all things pass away. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

40:Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

41:Music is the melody whose text is the world. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

42:purse-honora y provecho no caben en un saco. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

43:Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

44:Das Schicksal mischt die Karten, wir spielen. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

45:Forma dat rei essentiam, materia existentiam. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

46:great intelligence in a writer if his similes ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

47:„Kdo je přítelem všech, není přítelem nikoho. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

48:No one can transcend their own individuality. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

49:The truth can wait, for it lives a long life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

50:Everything that happens, happens of necessity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

51:You can know only what you have thought about. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

52:Intellect is invisible to the man who has none. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

53:Kitap zihnin en saf özü, en mükemmel suretidir. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

54:Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

55:He who has lost all hope has also lost all fear; ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

56:  “Out of any piece of wood a god may be carved. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

57:A man can be himself only so long as he is alone. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

58:A man can be himself, only so long as he is alone ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

59:A man can do as he will, but not will as he will. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

60:Life is a business that does not cover the costs. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

61:one is intelligent the more unfortunate as one is ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

62:Her halk diğer halkları kötüler ve hepsi de haklı. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

63:Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

64:Knowledge is to certain extent a second existence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

65:One should use common words to say uncommon things ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

66:Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

67:Reading is a mere makeshift for original thinking. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

68:To free a man from error is to give, not take away ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

69:A fé é como o amor: não pode ser obtida pela força. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

70:A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

71:Style is what gives value and currency to thoughts. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

72:Every nation mocks other nations. And all are right. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

73:La felicidad pertenece a los que bastan a sí mismos. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

74:Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

75:The word of man is the most durable of all material. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

76:Faith is like love: it does not let itself be forced. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

77:Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

78:Herkes istediğini yapabilir, ama istediğini isteyemez ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

79:He who does not enjoy solitude will not love freedom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

80:One should use common words to say uncommon things    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

81:There is something in us that is wiser than our head. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

82:It is only when a man is alone that he is really free. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

83:The truth is that we ought to be wretched, and are so. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

84:To have lost what cannot be missed is clearly no evil. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

85:A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

86:Apart from man, no being wonders at its own experience. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

87:A solidão é a sorte de todos os espíritos excepcionais. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

88:for what is not seen is as good as what does not exist. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

89:It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

90:mas sabe el necio en su casa, que el sabio en la agena. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

91:The present is the only reality and the only certainty. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

92:universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

93:A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

94:... a hundred fools together will not make one wise man. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

95:But Xauleira ra KaAa,-what is worth doing is hard to do. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

96:Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

97:He who does not enjoy solitude will not love freedom.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

98:It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

99:No rose without a thorn but many a thorn without a rose. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

100:The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

101:Directly after copulation, the devil's laughter is heard. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

102:Los hombres no significan nada para mí, en ninguna parte. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

103:No rose without a thorn. But many a thorn without a rose. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

104:Svetlo koje čovek upali za sebe svetli kasnije i drugima. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

105:Want and boredom are indeed the twin poles of human life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

106:A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

107:Animals hear about death for the first time when they die. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

108:Din disimulare se nasc necredința,nerecunoștința,trădarea. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

109:Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

110:Mostly the loss teaches us only about the value of things. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

111:Puterile lumii sint trei: inetligenta, forta si fericirea. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

112:To feel envy is human, to savour schadenfreude is devilish ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

113:We can do what we wish, but we can only wish what we must. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

114:We seldom speak of what we have but often of what we lack. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

115:A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

116:I have described religion as the metaphysics of the people. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

117:Man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

118:Night gives a black look to everything, whatever it may be. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

119:To feel envy is human, to savour schadenfreude is devilish. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

120:We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

121:Avutia este ca apa sarata: cu cat bei cu-atit ti-e mai sete. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

122:Bei gleicher Umgebung lebt doch jeder in einer anderen Welt. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

123:Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

124:Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

125:Mankind cannot get on without a certain amount of absurdity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

126:Marrying means to halve one's rights and double one's duties ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

127:We seldom think of what we have, but always of what we lack. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

128:After your death you will be what you were before your birth. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

129:A writer should never be brief at the expense of being clear. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

130:Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

131:History is the long, difficult and confused dream of Mankind. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

132:Intellectual effort for its own sake, they call eccentricity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

133:Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

134:Quem escreve para os tolos encontra sempre um grande público. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

135:To free a person from error is to give, and not to take away. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

136:Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

137:Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

138:What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

139:After your death, you will be what you were before your birth. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

140:No rose without a thorn. Yes, but many a thorn without a rose. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

141:Everything is beautiful only so long as it does not concern us. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

142:Evil is just what is positive; it makes its own existence felt. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

143:Honour is external conscience, and conscience is inward honour. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

144:Lesen heißt mit einem fremden Kopfe, statt des eigenen, denken. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

145:...nothing at all rides on the life or death of the individual. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

146:The progress of life shows a man the stuff of which he is made. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

147:Writers may be classified as meteors, planets, and fixed stars. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

148:Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

149:It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

150:That which knows all things and is known by none is the subject. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

151:What a man has: that is, property and possessions of every kind. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

152:Any book, which is at all important, should be reread immediately ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

153:Genius is an intellect that has become unfaithful to its destiny. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

154:Reading is thinking with someone else's head instead of ones own. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

155:The brain may be regarded as a kind of parasite of the organism.. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

156:Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

157:Pride works from within; it is the direct appreciation of oneself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

158:Tutti prendono i limiti della loro visione per i limiti del mondo. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

159:what penalty can frighten a man who is not afraid of death itself? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

160:De liefdesverdrietige is een dwaas, die zich heeft laten misleiden. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

161:Every nation criticizes every other one - and they are all correct. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

162:I've never known any trouble than an hour's reading didn't assuage. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

163:No man becomes this or that by wishing to be it, however earnestly. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

164:The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

165:The world is not a factory and animals are not products for our use ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

166:To forgive and forget means to throw away dearly bought experience. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

167:Ignorance is degrading only when found in company with great riches. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

168:Intellect is a magnitude of intensity, not a magnitude of extensity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

169:It is in the treatment of trifles that a person shows what they are. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

170:Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

171:Nada se toma en serio en la vida humana: El polvo no merece la pena. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

172:Nie możemy mówić o autorytecie tam, gdzie nie ma nic, prócz dowodów. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

173:Ninguém é realmente digno de inveja, e tantos são dignos de lástima! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

174:Patriotism is the passion of fools and the most foolish of passions. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

175:Rudeness is better than any argument; it totally eclipses intellect. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

176:The eternal being..., as it lives in us, also lives in every animal. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

177:Genius lives only one story above madness, ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena,

178:Hope is the confusion of the desire for a thing with its probability. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

179:In general, nine-tenths of our happiness depends on our health alone. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

180:Reason is feminine in nature; it can only give after it has received. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

181:The highest, most varied and lasting pleasures are those of the mind. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

182:Vengeance taken will often tear the heart and torment the conscience. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

183:Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

184:La vida es una guerra sin tregua, y se muere con las armas en la mano. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

185:Not to go to the theater is like making one's toilet without a mirror. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

186:Religions are like fireflies. They require darkness in order to shine. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

187:That I could clamber to the frozen moon. And draw the ladder after me. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

188:Every child is in a way a genius; and every genius is in a way a child. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

189:Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

190:Journalists are like dogs, when ever anything moves they begin to bark. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

191:Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

192:Man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills. —ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER ~ John Green,

193:Marrying means doing whatever possible to become repulsed of each other ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

194:Spanish proverb: honor and money are not to be found in the same purse. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

195:The man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

196:Vulgar people take huge delight in the faults and follies of great men. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

197:We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

198:Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

199:Decir la verdad y después prenderse fuego. Esa es la tarea del filósofo. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

200:Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

201:Quanto menos vida pessoal, mais segura e melhor será a vida intelectual. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

202:To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

203:We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

204:Every Man Mistakes the Limits of His Vision For The Limits Of The World.. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

205:It is only the hope of what is claimed that begets and nurishes the wish. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

206:Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

207:Men are the devils of the earth, and the animals are its tormented souls. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

208:One can forget everything, everything, only not oneself, one's own being. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

209:Science is not a taxi-cab that we can get in and out of whenever we like. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

210:The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

211:The tallest oak tree once was an acorn that any pig could have swallowed. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

212:Because appearance remains appearance and does not become thing in itself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

213:Bei Abwesenheit großer Leiden quälen uns die kleinsten Unannehmlichkeiten. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

214:He who is without hope is also without fear. - On Psychology ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

215:In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

216:Life is neither to be wept over nor to be laughed at but to be understood. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

217:Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

218:Men need some kind of external activity, because they are inactive within. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

219:Our first ideas of life are generally taken from fiction rather than fact. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

220:All wanting comes from need, therefore from lack, therefore from suffering. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

221:A man must have grown old and lived long in order to see how short life is. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

222:Man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills. —ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER ~ John Green,

223:Není nic těžšího než vyjádřit významnou myšlenku tak, aby jí každý rozuměl. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

224:You can never read bad literature too little, nor good literature too much. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

225:A man can surely do what he wills to do, but cannot determine what he wills. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

226:Anyone can squash a bug but all professors of this world couldn't build one. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

227:Der Mensch kann wohl tun was er will, aber er kann nicht wollen was er will. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

228:Every human perfection is linked to an error which it threatens to turn into ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

229:In reading, the mind is, in fact, only the playground of another's thoughts. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

230:...it is only the hope of what is claimed that begets and nurishes the wish; ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

231:People of Wealth and the so called upper class suffer the most from boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

232:The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

233:Always to see the general in the particular is the very foundation of genius. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

234:It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

235:The Jews are the scum of the earth, but they are also great masters in lying. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

236:The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

237:This is the case with many learned persons; they have read themselves stupid. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

238:To buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

239:We take no pleasure in existence except when we are striving after something. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

240:You are free to do what you want, but you are not free to want what you want. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

241:A happy life is impos­si­ble; the best that a man can attain is a heroic life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

242:Beauty is an open letter of recommendation that wins hearts for us in advance. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

243:buying books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

244:Console yourself by remembering that the world doesn't deserve your affection. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

245:It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

246:Por sabedoria entendo a arte de tornar a vida mais agradável e feliz possível. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

247:To desire immortality is to desire the eternal perpetuation of a great mistake ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

248:A vida oscila, como um pêndulo, de um lado para o outro, entre a dor e o tédio. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

249:Life is an unpleasant business. I have resolved to spend mine reflecting on it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

250:Man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills. -- Arthur Schopenhauer ~ John Green,

251:The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

252:Wealth as well as sea water. The more we drink, the more thirsty. The so famous ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

253:It is the monotony of his own nature that makes a man find solitude intolerable. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

254:When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

255:A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

256:Before you take anything away you must have something better to put in its place. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

257:El hombre puede, acaso, hacer lo que quiere; pero no puede querer lo que quiere". ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

258:Es wäre gut, Bücher zu kaufen, wenn man die Zeit, sie zu lesen, mitkaufen könnte. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

259:For, as you know, religions are like glow-worms; they shine only when it is dark. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

260:In many cases hate a person is rooted in the involuntary estimate of its virtues. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

261:Necessity is the constant scourge of the lower classes, ennui of the higher ones. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

262:The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

263:The nobler and more perfect a thing is, the later and more slowly does it mature. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

264:There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness, revelry, high life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

265:...this our world, which is so real, with all its suns and milky ways is-nothing. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

266:True appreciation of his own value will make a man really indifferent to insult. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

267:Before you take anything away, you must have something better to put in its place. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

268:Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

269:Other people's heads are too wretched a place for true happiness to have its seat. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

270:Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

271:The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

272:To buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them l ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

273:We deceive and flatter no one by such delicate artificies as we do our own selves. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

274:We sometimes forget even what we have done, so how much more what we have thought. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

275:Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

276:Exigir la inmortalidad del individuo es querer perpetuar un error hasta el infinito ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

277:Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

278:reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with ones own ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

279:Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

280:Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

281:There is a wide difference between the original thinker and the merely learned man. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

282:It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

283:Materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

284:The negativity of well-being and happiness, in antithesis to the positivity of pain. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

285:Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world. —ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER ~ Michio Kaku,

286:Every separation is a foretaste of death while every new meeting a foretaste of life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

287:Life is a stage where the worst actor plays the king while the best actor the beggar. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

288:Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

289:Our life is a loan received from death with sleep as the daily interest on this loan. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

290:Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with one's own. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

291:That which has been exists no more; it exists as little as that which has never been. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

292:The problem with Germans is that they look in the clouds for what lies at their feet. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

293:Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world. —ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER ~ Ray Kurzweil,

294:Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

295:O, wie wenig muss doch einer zu denken gehabt haben, damit er soviel hat lesen können! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

296:Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

297:The alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater value. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

298:Whoever attaches great importance to the opinions of people pays them too much honour. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

299:Nos habitat, non tartara, sed nee sider coeli: Spiritus, in nobis qui viget, illafacit. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

300:As Epictetus says, Men are not influenced by things, but by their thoughts about things. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

301:Caci avutia este ca apa sarata: cu cat bei cu atat ti-e mai este. La fel este si gloria. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

302:Most men are so thoroughly subjective that nothing really interests them but themselves. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

303:Require the immortality of the individual is wanting to perpetuate an error to infinity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

304:She has tender feet, for she walks not on the hard earth, but treads on the heads of men ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

305:For where did Dante get the material for his Hell, if not from this actual world of ours? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

306:Het zou handig zijn wanneer je boeken koopt dat je de tijd om ze te lezen erbij kon kopen ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

307:How very learned many a man would be if he knew everything that was in his own books! The ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

308:It's the niceties that make the difference fate gives us the hand, and we play the cards. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

309:Music is the occult metaphysical exercise of a soul not knowing that it philosophizes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

310:Today it is bad, and day by day it will get worse―until at last the worst of all arrives. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

311:Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world. —Arthur Schopenhauer ~ Marcus du Sautoy,

312:The heavy armor becomes the light dress of childhood; the pain is brief, the joy unending. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

313:There is only one inborn error, and that is the notion that we exist in order to be happy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

314:There is only one inborn error. and that is the notion that we exist in order to be happy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

315:Existe apenas um único erro inato, que é o de acreditarmos que vivemos para sermos felizes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

316:In their hearts women think that it is men's business to earn money and theirs to spend it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

317:Je edler und vollkommener eine Sache ist, desto später und langsamer gelangt sie zur Reife. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

318:Los primeros cuarenta años de vida nos dan el texto; los treinta siguientes, el comentario. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

319:The task of the novelist is not to narrate great events but to make small ones interesting. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

320:Time is merely the spread-out and piecemeal view that an individual being has of the Ideas. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

321:Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

322:No one writes anything worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

323:The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

324:Vedas are the most rewarding and the most elevating book which can be possible in the world. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

325:A good supply of resignation is of the first importance in providing for the journey of life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

326:Every light can be extinguished. The intellect is a light. Therefore it can, be extinguished. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

327:...in the end every one stands alone, and the important thing is who it is that stands alone. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

328:Life is known to be a process of combustion; intellect is the light produced by this process. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

329:On the path of actions, great heart is the chief recommendation; on that works, a great head. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

330:Pride is generally censured and decried, but mainly by those who have nothing to be proud of. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

331:The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

332:The Universe is a dream dreamed by a single dreamer where all the dream characters dream too. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

333:Das Leben schwingt, gleich einem Pendel, hin und her, zwischen dem Schmerz und der Langeweile. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

334:Dissimulation is innate in woman, and almost as much a quality of the stupid as of the clever. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

335:Clio, the muse of history, is as thoroughly infected with lies as a street whore with syphilis. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

336:Il tempo è ciò in grazia del quale ogni cosa, in ogni momento, diventa nulla nelle nostre mani. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

337:It can truly be said: Men are the devils of the earth, and the animals are the tormented souls. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

338:Mankind is growing out of religion as out of its childhood clothes. - On Religion ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

339:The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

340:There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

341:We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

342:Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

343:Common people are merely intent on spending time - whoever has some talent, on making use of it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

344:Every original idea is first ridiculed, then vigorously attacked, and finally taken for granted. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

345:It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

346:Where there is no love, a person's faithfulness to the marriage bond is probably against nature. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

347:Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

348:Genuine contempt, on the other hand, is the unsullied conviction of the worthlessness of another. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

349:If God made the world, I would not be that God, for the misery of the world would break my heart. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

350:Why is it that, in spite of all the mirrors in the world, no one really knows what he looks like? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

351:In our monogamous part of the world, to marry means to halve one's rights and double one's duties. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

352:Nimic nu linişteşte supărarea noastră, chiar când e dreaptă, decât aceste vorbe : "E un nefericit! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

353:No one reveals himself as he is; we all wear a mask and play a role. - On Psychology ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

354:Ordinary people merely think how they shall 'spend' their time; a man of talent tries to 'use' it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

355:To be irritated by trifles, a man must be well off; for in misfortunes trifles are unfelt. SECTION ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

356:A man becomes a philosopher by reason of a certain perplexity, from which he seeks to free himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

357:Freedom of the press is to the machinery of the state what the safety valve is to the steam engine. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

358:Gaiety alone, as it were, is the hard cash of happiness; everything else is just a promissory note. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

359:Human existence is an error...it is bad today and every day it gets worse, until the worst happens. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

360:Todo individuo considera que los límites de su propia visión son los límites del mundo. ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER ~ Michio Kaku,

361:Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

362:Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

363:First the truth is ridiculed. Then it meets outrage. Then it is said to have been obvious all along. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

364:happiness and satisfaction always imply some desire fulfilled, some state of pain brought to an end. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

365:İnsanın hayatı, yenileceğinden hiç şüphe etmeksizin, var olmaya çalışmak için harcanmış bir çabadır. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

366:Volere il meno possibile e conoscere il più possibile è stata la massima che ha guidato la mia vita. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

367:You can do what you will, but in any given moment of your life you can will only one definite thing. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

368:A man cannot serve two masters: so it is either reason or the scriptures. - On Religion ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

369:I live not in myself, but I become Portion of that around me; and to me High mountains are a feeling. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

370:Men are the devils of the earth, and the animals are the tormented souls. - On Religion ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

371:Music is an unconscious exercise in metaphysics in which the mind does not know it is philosophizing. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

372:The happiness we receive from ourselves is greater than that which we obtain from our surroundings[1] ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

373:The mind is by its nature free, not a slave; only what it does by itself and willingly is successful. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

374:(...) a ingenuidade se mantém como a indumentária de honra do gênio, assim como a nudez é a da beleza. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

375:If education or warning were of any avail, how could Seneca's pupil be a Nero? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, The Art of Controversy,

376:La música no expresa nunca el fenómeno, sino únicamente la escencia íntima, el en sí de todo fenómeno. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

377:Quanto mais nobre e perfeita é uma coisa, tanto mais tarde e mais lentamente ela atinge a maturidade". ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

378:The first rule for a good style is to have something to say; in fact, this in itself is almost enough. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

379:The greatest intellectual capacities are only found in connection with a vehement and passionate will. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

380:To desire immortality for the individual is really the same as wanting to perpetuate an error forever. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

381:What a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has or how he is regarded by others. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

382:Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

383:You can also look upon our life as an episode unprofitably disturbing the blessed calm of nothingness. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

384:A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles, for then he is off his guard. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

385:Beauty is an open letter of recommendation, predisposing the heart to favor the person who presents it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

386:If at any moment Time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the miseries of boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

387:Solitude will be welcomed or endured or avoided, according as a man's personal value is large or small. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

388:What people commonly call Fate is, as a general rule, nothing but their own stupid and foolish conduct. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

389:... whoever attributes no merit to himself because he really has none is not modest, but merely honest. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

390:A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles---for then he is off his guard. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

391:Every moment of our life belongs to the present only for a moment; then it belongs for ever to the past. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

392:It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that makes the philosopher. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

393:Marrying means, to grasp blindfolded into a sack hoping to find out an eel out of an assembly of snakes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

394:Our life is to be regarded as a loan received from death, with sleep as the daily interest on this loan. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

395:The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

396:we generally find pleasure to be not nearly so pleasant as we expected, and pain very much more painful. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

397:Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

398:For the world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls and on the other the devils in it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

399:Of how many a man may it not be said that hope made a fool of him until he danced into the arms of death! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

400:The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

401:There is only one inborn error: and that is the notion that we exist in order to be happy. Arthur Schopenhauer ~ Clive Hamilton,

402:To call the world God is not to explain it; it is only to enrich our language with a superfluous synonym. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

403:Wer klug ist, wird im Gespräch weniger an das denken, worüber er spricht, als an den, mit dem er spricht. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

404:an intellect that positively excels even in one single direction is among the rarest of natural phenomena. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

405:Din flacăra purificatoare a durerii, negarea voinţei de a trăi, adică eliberarea, izbucneşte ca un fulger. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

406:The law of simplicity and naïveté applies to all fine art, for it is compatible with what is most sublime. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

407:The younger we are, the more each individual object represents for us the whole class to which it belongs. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

408:To talk of rational beings apart from man is as if we attempted to talk of heavy beings apart from bodies. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

409:You must treat a work of art like a great man: stand before it and wait patiently till it deigns to speak. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

410:La vita e i sogni sono fogli di uno stesso libro. Leggerli in ordine è vivere, sfogliarli a caso è sognare. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

411:Man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

412:Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

413:The differences which come under the first head are those which Nature herself has set between man and man; ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

414:We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack. Therefore, rather than grateful, we are bitter. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

415:It is difficult, if not impossible, to define the limit of our reasonable desires in respect of possessions. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

416:Life is a task to be done. It is a fine thing to say defunctus est; it means that the man has done his task. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

417:Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

418:What now on the other hand makes people sociable is their incapacity to endure solitude and thus themselves. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

419:The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

420:there are times when children might seem like innocent prisoners, condemned, not to death, but to life, ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

421:There is one respect in which beasts show real wisdom... their quiet, placid enjoyment of the present moment. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

422:... what every one most aims at in ordinary contact with his fellows is to prove them inferior to himself ... ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

423:Every society requires mutual accommodation and mutually agreeable temper; hence the larger it is, the duller. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

424:I believe that when death closes our eyes we shall awaken to a light, of which our sunlight is but the shadow. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

425:It is one great dream dreamed by a single Being, but in such a way that all the dream characters dream too. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

426:The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

427:The young should early be trained to bear being left alone; for it is a source of happiness and peace of mind. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

428:Thus also every keen pleasure is an error and an illusion, for no attained wish can give lasting satisfaction. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

429:To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

430:For the longer to have had to rack your brains for something the more firmly will is stay once you have got it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

431:People's envy shows how unhappy they feel; their constant attention to the doings of others how bored they are. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

432:Religions are the children of ignorance, and they do not long survive their mother. - On Religion ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

433:The only freedom that exists is of a metaphysical character. In the physical world freedom is an impossibility. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

434:Where there is much pride or much vanity, there will also be much revengefulness. - On Psychology ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

435:A major difficulty in translation is that a word in one language seldom has a precise equivalent in another one. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

436:Dovunque e comunque si manifesti l’eccellenza, subito la generale mediocrità si allea e congiura per soffocarla. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

437:If I maintain my silence about my secret it is my prisoner...if I let it slip from my tongue, I am ITS prisoner. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

438:O maior benefício das ferrovias é o fato de elas pouparem uma existência miserável a milhões de cavalos de tiro. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

439:Si llamáramos a las tumbas y preguntáramos a los muertos si les gustaría levantarse otra vez, nos dirían que no. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

440:The cause of laughter is simply the sudden perception of the incongruity between a concept and the real project. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

441:Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

442:Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes; ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

443:Every truth passes through 3 stages before it is recognized 1)ridicule 2) opposition 3) accepted as self-evident. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

444:the longer you live the more clearly you will feel that, on the whole, life is a disappointment, nay, a cheat. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

445:There are 80,000 prostitutes in London alone and what are they, if not bloody sacrifices on the alter of monogamy ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

446:felicidad perfecta es inalcanzable, podamos llegar a esa felicidad relativa que consiste en la ausencia del dolor. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

447:The principle of contradiction establishes merely the agreement of concepts, but does not itself produce concepts. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

448:There are 80,000 prostitutes in London alone and what are they, if not bloody sacrifices on the altar of monogamy? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

449:To secure and promote this feeling of cheerfulness should be the supreme aim of all our endeavors after happiness. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

450:Umut gerçeğin reddedilişidir , koşmaya devam etmesi için atın burnunun ucunda sallandırdıkları havuçtan ibarettir. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

451:With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

452:Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of resurrection. —ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER, German philosopher ~ Bernd Heinrich,

453:It is very necessary that a man should be apprised early in life that it is a masquerade in which he finds himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

454:Life to the great majority is only a constant struggle for mere existence, with the certainty of losing it at last. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

455:Riches, one may say, are like sea-water; the more you drink the thirstier you become; and the same is true of fame. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

456:Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

457:The brain may be regarded as a kind of parasite of the organism, a pensioner, as it were, who dwells with the body. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

458:All our wanting comes from needs, thus we continiously suffer. The intellect teaches free will, free from suffering. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

459:We are all innocent to begin with, and this merely means that neither we nor others know the evil of our own nature. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

460:At bottom, every state regards another as a gang of robbers who will fall upon it as soon as there is an opportunity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

461:Give way neither to love nor to hate, is one-half of worldly wisdom: say nothing and believe nothing, the other half. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

462:Health so far outweighs all external goods that a healthy beggars is truly more fortunate than a king in poor health. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

463:I love looking at famous people. Because of the way they look. Because of the way photography makes them look famous. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

464:"A good supply of resignation is of the first importance in providing for the journey of life." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer"On the wisdom of life",

465:Die allermeiste Gesellschaft ist so beschaffen, dass wer sie gegen die Einsamkeit vertauscht einen guten Handel macht. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

466:Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will. (One can choose what to do, but not what to want.) ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

467:Reading is a mere makeshift for original thinking. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, “On Thinking for Oneself,” Parerga und Paralipomena, Vol. 2, § 260,

468:The life of every individual is really always a tragedy, but gone through in detail, it has the character of a comedy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

469:Do not shorten the morning by getting up late; look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to a certain extent sacred. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

470:Empirical sciences prosecuted purely for their own sake, and without philosophic tendency are like a face without eyes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

471:If God made this world, then i would not want to be the God. It is full of misery and distress that it breaks my heart. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

472:Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

473:Time is that by which at every moment all things become as nothing in our hands, and thereby lose all their true value. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

474:A man of business will often deceive you without the slightest scruple, but he will absolutely refuse to commit a theft. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

475:In the blessings as well as in the ills of life, less depends upon what befalls us than upon the way in which it is met. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

476:Like a flash of lightning Arthur Schopenhauer appeared to me and said, "The highest law is love, the love that is compassion, ~ Bohumil Hrabal,

477:The man who goes up in a balloon does not feel as if he were ascending; he only sees the earth sinking deeper below him. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

478:Consciousness is the mere surface of our minds, of which, as of the earth, we do not know the inside, but only the crust. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

479:For as a rule a man must have worth in himself in order to recognise it and believe in it willingly and freely in others. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

480:How shall a man be proud, when his conception is a crime, his birth a penalty, his life a labour, and death a necessity!— ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

481:Human life, like all inferior goods, is covered on the outside with a false glitter; what suffers always conceals itself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

482:If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

483:Music is the answer to the mystery of life. The most profound of all the arts, It expresses the deepest thoughts of life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

484:Omul gaseste adversari pretutindeni si moare cu armele in miini.Dar existenta noastra nu este posibila fara toate acestea ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

485:What makes people hard-hearted is this, that each man has, or fancies he has, as much as he can bear in his own troubles. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

486:Epicurus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Plato, Michel de Montaigne, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Bertrand Russell. ~ Timothy Ferriss,

487:He who writes carelessly confesses thereby at the very outset that he does not attach much importance to his own thoughts. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

488:If we are distracted and read thoughtlessly, and then realize that we have indeed taken in all the words, but no concepts. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

489:perché come il mondo è da un lato, in tutto e per tutto, rappresentazione, così dall'altro, in tutto e per tutto, volontà. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

490:All religions promise a reward for excellences of the will or heart, but none for excellences of the head or understanding. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

491:A reproach can only hurt if it hits the mark. Whoever knows that he does not deserve a reproach can treat it with contempt. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

492:If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

493:Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

494:Life is a language in which certain truths are conveyed to us; if we could learn them in some other way, we should not live. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

495:our memory of joys and sorrows is always imperfect, and they become a matter of indifference to us as soon as they are over. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

496:Therefore it has always been said that music is the language of feeling and of passion, as words are the language of reason. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

497:Virtue cannot be taught, no more than genius; indeed, concepts are as unfruitful for it as for art and of use only as tools. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

498:Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

499:If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones; for life is short, and time and energy limited. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

500:Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption. It is not only an interruption, but also a disruption of thought. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

501:Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

502:Talent works for money and fame; the motive which moves genius to productivity is, on the other hand, less easy to determine. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

503:The reason domestic pets are so lovable and so helpful to us is because they enjoy, quietly and placidly, the present moment. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

504:For whence did Dante take the materials for his hell but from this our actual world? And yet he made a very proper hell of it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

505:Gesunder Menschenverstand kann fast jeden Grad von Bildung ersetzen, aber kein Grad von Bildung den gesunden Menschenverstand. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

506:I constantly saw the false and the bad, and finally the absurd and the senseless, standing in universal admiration and honour. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

507:I owe what is best in my own development to the impression made by Kant's works, the sacred writings of the Hindus, and Plato. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

508:The actual facts of morality are too much on my side for me to fear that my theory can ever be replaced or upset by any other. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

509:The bad thing about all religions is that, instead of being able to confess their allegorical nature, they have to conceal it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

510:There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

511:A man who has not enough originality to think out a new title for his book will be much less capable of giving it new contents. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

512:Every satisfaction he attains lays the seeds of some new desire, so that there is no end to the wishes of each individual will. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

513:There is not a grain of dust, not an atom that can become nothing, yet man believes that death is the annhilation of his being. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

514:To be alone is the fate of all great minds—a fate deplored at times, but still always chosen as the less grievous of two evils. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

515:Whatever torch we kindle, and whatever space it may illuminate, our horizon will always remain encircled by the depth of night. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

516:[T]he appropriate form of address between man and man ought to be, not monsieur, sir, but fellow sufferer, compagnon de miseres. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

517:The little honesty that exists among authors is discernible in the unconscionable way they misquote from the writings of others. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

518:A man of genius can hardly be sociable, for what dialogues could indeed be so intelligent and entertaining as his own monologues? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

519:Each separate misfortune, as it comes, seems, no doubt, to be something exceptional; but misfortune in general is the rule. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

520:There is no happiness on earth to compare with that which a beautiful and fruitful mind finds in a propitious hour within itself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

521:Dialectic is the art of intellectual fencing; and it is only when we so regard it that we can erect it into a branch of knowledge. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

522:Every State looks upon its neighbours as at bottom a horde of robbers, who will fall upon it as soon as they have the opportunity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

523:One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

524:To be alone is the fate of all great minds-a fate deplored at times, but still always chosen as the less grievous of two evils.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

525:To such an one we speak as those who are like us have spoken to us, and have so become our comfort in the wilderness of this life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

526:Whatever torch we kindle, and whatever space it may illuminate, our horizon will always remain encircled by the depth of night.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

527:Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

528:I am often surprised by the cleverness, and now and again by the stupidity, of my dog; and I have similar experiences with mankind. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

529:In savage countries they eat one another, in civilized they deceive one another; and that is what people call the way of the world! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

530:... that when you're buying books, you're optimistically thinking you're buying the time to read them. (Paraphrase of Schopenhauer) ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

531:The less one, as a result of objective or subjective conditions, has to come into contact with people, the better off one is for it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

532:For whence did Dante get the material for his hell, if not from this actual world of ours? And indeed he made a downright hell of it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

533:Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people. There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

534:If you want to earn the gratitude of your own age you must keep in step with it. But if you do that you will produce nothing great. If ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

535:Quanto mais alguém pertence à posteridade, isto é, à humanidade em geral e como um todo, tanto mais estranho será à sua própria época. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

536:... that when you're buying books, you're optimistically thinking you're buying the time to read them. (Paraphrase of Schopenhauer) ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

537:The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

538:Every fulfilled wish we wrest from the world is really like alms that keep the beggar alive today so that he can starve again tomorrow. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

539:Ihmiselle ylittämätöntä on hänen turhamaisuutensa tyydyttäminen. Mikään vamma ei koske häneen niin kuin turhamaisuutensa kokema kolaus. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

540:it is worthy of consideration, indeed marvelous, how besides his life in concreto, a person always leads a second in abstracto as well. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

541:Every genius is a great child; he gazes out at the world as something strange, a spectacle, and therefore with purely objective interest ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

542:If the immediate and direct purpose of our life is not suffering then our existence is the most ill-adapted to its purpose in the world. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

543:Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, Studies in Pessimism (1890),

544:Talent hits a target that no one else can hit,” wrote the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. “Genius hits a target no one else can see. ~ Walter Isaacson,

545:The power of religious dogma, when inculcated early, is such as to stifle conscience, compassion, and finally every feeling of humanity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

546:This actual world of what is knowable, in which we are and which is in us, remains both the material and the limit of our consideration. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

547:Thus, the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

548:A vida é como uma bola de sabão, que conservamos e sopramos tanto quanto for possível, porém com a firme certeza de que ela irá estourar. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

549:Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

550:I know of no more beautiful prayer than that which the Hindus of old used in closing: May all that have life be delivered from suffering. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

551:Music is so easy to explain, yet so inexplicable, as it reproduces all the emotions of our inner being without reality, remote from pain. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

552:O único modo de desenvolver a superioridade na convivência com os outros é não precisar deles de maneira alguma e fazê-los perceber isso. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

553:Reasonable and vicious are quite consistent with each other, in fact, only through their union are great and far-reaching crimes possible ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

554:Sexual passion is the cause of war and the end of peace, the basis of what is serious... and consequently the concentration of all desire ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

555:The more distinctly a man knows, the more intelligent he is, the more pain he has; the man who is gifted with genius suffers most of all. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

556:Die Freunde nennen sich aufrichtig; die Feinde sind es: daher man ihren Tadel zur Selbsterkenntnis benutzen sollte, als eine bittre Arznei ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

557:Conscience accompanies every act with the comment: You should act differently, although its true sense is: You could be other than you are. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

558:empat puluh tahun usia pertama kita dihabiskan dengan menulis ratusan bahkan ribuan halaman buku teks, yang akan dibaca kelak di sisa usia. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

559:Exigir que um indivíduo conserve na sua mente tudo o que já leu é como querer que ele ainda traga dentro de si tudo o que já comeu na vida. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

560:If there is anything in the world that can really be called a man's property, it is surely that which is the result of his mental activity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

561:In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

562:It is a clumsy experiment to make; for it involves the destruction of the very consciousness which puts the question and awaits the answer. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

563:Rien n'est beau gue le vrai; le vrai seul est aimable'' ''Doğrudan başka hiçbir şey güzel değildir; sadece doğru sevilmeye değerdir. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

564:That arithmetic is the basest of all mental activities is proved by the fact that it is the only one that can be accomplished by a machine. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

565:All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

566:A man of talent will strive for money and reputation; but the spring that moves genius to the production of its works is not as easy to name ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

567:In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of this world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

568:One man is more concerned with the impression he makes on the rest of mankind, another with the impression the rest of mankind makes on him. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

569:So the problem is not so much to see what nobody has yet seen, as to think what nobody has yet thought concerning that which everybody sees. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

570:All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

571:Geçmişte kimse yaşamadı, gelecekte kimse yaşamayacak; her türlü yaşamın biçimi şimdidir; hiçbir kötülüğün alıp götüremeyeceği bir mülktür bu. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

572:Genius is among other minds what the carbuncle is among gemstones; it radiates its own light while the others only reflect what they receive. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

573:In truth the most striking figure for the relation of the two is that of the strong blind man carrying the sighted lame man on his shoulders. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

574:We should comfort ourselves with the masterpieces of art as with exalted personages-stand quietly before them and wait till they speak to us. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

575:Every human perfection is allied to a defect into which it threatens to pass, but it is also true that every defect is allied to a perfection. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

576:Let us see rather that like Janus—or better, like Yama, the Brahmin god of death—religion has two faces, one very friendly, one very gloomy... ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

577:The conviction that the world and man is something that had better not have been, is of a kind to fill us with indulgence towards one another. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

578:To expect a man to retain everything that he has ever read is like expecting him to carry about in his body everything that he has ever eaten. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

579:Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

580:Rascals are always sociable, and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others company. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

581:To read a book is to hold an entire world in the palm of your hand. That world is unique to you; no two readers can ever inhabit the same world ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

582:Der Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will. Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

583:Money alone is absolutely good, because it is not only a concrete satisfaction of one need in particular; it is an abstract satisfaction of all. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

584:The conviction is well founded, which the sight of noble conduct calls forth, that the spirit of love... can never pass away and become nothing. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

585:A man becomes a philosopher by reason of a certain perplexity, from which he seeks to free himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, The World As Will And Idea, Volume I, p. 41.,

586:If we suspect that a man is lying, we should pretend to believe him; for then he becomes bold and assured, lies more vigorously, and is unmasked. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

587:The general history of art and literature shows that the highest achievements of the human mind are, as a rule, not favourably received at first. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

588:Pride works _from within_; it is the direct appreciation of oneself. Vanity is the desire to arrive at this appreciation indirectly, from without. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

589:la vanità cerca l'applauso degli altri per costruirci sopra un'alta opinione di sé, è presupposto della superbia che quella esista fin da principio ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

590:Un hombre puede ser él mismo mientras esté solo; si no ama la soledad, no amará la libertad; porque sólo cuando se está solo se es realmente libre. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

591:A man may call to mind the face of his friend, but not his own. Here, then, is an initial difficulty in the way of applying the maxim, Know Thyself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

592:Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

593:Physics is unable to stand on its own feet, but needs a metaphysics on which to support itself, whatever fine airs it may assume towards the latter. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

594:Republics are anti-natural, artificial, and derive from reflection: consequently there are also very few of them in the entire history of mankind... ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

595:You can do what you will: but at each given moment of your life you can will only one determined thing and by no means anything other than this one. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

596:All religions promise a reward beyond life, in eternity, for excellences of the will or heart, but none for excellences of the head or understanding. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

597:All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second, it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.” ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER ~ Anonymous,

598:It is not what things are objectively and in themselves, but what they are for us, in our way of looking at them, that makes us happy or the reverse. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

599:You can do what you will, but in any given moment of your life you can will only one definite thing and absolutely nothing other than that one thing. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

600:All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER ~ Anonymous,

601:El dolor no brota de no tener. Brota de querer tener y sin embargo no tener. El querer tener es la conditio sine qua non para que el dolor sea eficaz. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

602:For the purpose of acquiring gain, everything else is pushed aside or thrown overboard, for example, as is philosophy by the professors of philosophy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

603:Genius is to other gifts what the carbuncle is to the precious stones. It sends forth its own light, whereas other stones only reflect borrowed light. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

604:Heiraten heißt das Mögliche t(h)un, einander zum Ekel zu werden. (Marrying means doing whatever possible to become repulsed of each other.) ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

605:It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big. It is an indivisible point, drawn out and magnified by the powerful lenses of Time and Space. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

606:There is no opinion, however absurd, which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to the conviction that it is generally adopted. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

607:A great affliction of all Philistines is that idealities afford them no entertainment, but to escape from boredom they are always in need of realities. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

608:A man of correct insight among those who are duped and deluded resembles one whose watch is right while all the clocks in the town give the wrong time. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

609:Arthur Schopenhauer: “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident ~ Anonymous,

610:Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

611:Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

612:All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER ~ Nick Ortner,

613:Exaggeration of every kind is as essential to journalism as it is to dramatic art, for the object of journalism is to make events go as far as possible. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

614:It will generally be found that as soon the terrors of live reach the point where they outweigh the terrors of death, a man will put an end to his life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

615:The middle ages showed us the results of thinking without experimentation, our present century shows us what experimentation without thinking leads to". ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

616:A man who has no mental needs, because his intellect is of the narrow and normal amount, is, in the strict sense of the word, what is called a philistine. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

617:Casar-se de maneira geral significa colocar a mão dentro de um saco sem ver o que há dentro dele e esperar tirar uma enguia de um emaranhado de serpentes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

618:every man is pent up within the limits of his own consciousness, and cannot directly get beyond those limits any more than he can get beyond his own skin; ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

619:Money is human happiness in the abstract; he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes himself utterly to money. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

620:No doubt, when modesty was made a virtue, it was a very advantageous thing for the fools, for everybody is expected to speak of himself as if he were one. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

621:No doubt, when modesty was made a virtue, it was a very advantageous thing for the fools; for everybody is expected to speak of himself as if he were one. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

622:Noi nu ştim, în zilele noastre bune ce nenorocire ne pregăteşte destinul tocmai acum: boală, prigoană, sărăcie, mutilare, orbire, nebunie, moarte ş.a.m.d. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

623:There are tree main bulwarks of defence against new thoughts: to pay no heed, to give no credence, and finally to assert that it had already long existed. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

624:The way to keep down hatred and contempt is certainly not to look for a man's alleged "dignity," but, on the contrary, to regard him as an object of pity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

625:...a genuine work of art, can never be false, nor can it be discredited through the lapse of time, for it does not present an opinion but the thing itself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

626:Every generation, no matter how paltry its character, thinks itself much wiser than the one immediately preceding it, let alone those that are more remote. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

627:[T]he empirical inscrutableness of all natural things is a proof a posteriori of the ideality and merely phenomenal-actuality of their empirical existence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

628:To truth only a brief celebration of victory is allowed between the two long periods during which it is condemned as paradoxical, or disparaged as trivial. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

629:As a general rule, the longer a man's fame is likely to last, the later it will be in coming; for all excellent products require time for their development. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

630:Happiness of any given life is to be measured, not by its joys and pleasures, but by the extent to which it has been free from suffering-from positive evil. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

631:La solitude offre à l'homme intellectuellement haut placé un double avantage : le premier, d'être avec soi-même, et le second de n'être pas avec les autres. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

632:Money is human happiness in the abstract; and so the man who is no longer capable of enjoying such happiness in the concrete, sets his whole heart on money. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

633:There are three stages in the revelation of truth. The first is to be ridiculed, the second is to be resisted and the third is to be considered self-evident. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

634:Traim intr-o societate de porci spinosi surprinsa de iarna raului universal; vrem sa ne incalzim unii de altii, dar tepii de pe spatele fiecaruia nu ne lasa. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

635:alent is like the marksman who hits a target which others cannot reach; genius is like the marksman who hits a target, as far as which others cannot even see. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

636:Die Wahrheit ist allezeit nur ein kurzes Siegesfest beschieden zwischen die beiden langen Zeiträumen, wo sie als paradox und als trivial gering geschätzt wird ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

637:One can even say that we require at all times a certain quantity of care or sorrow or want, as a ship requires ballast, in order to keep on a straight course. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

638:Religions are like glow-worms: they need darkness in order to shine. A certain degree of general ignorance is the condition for the existence of any religion. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

639:Still, instead of trusting what their own minds tell them, men have as a rule a weakness for trusting others who pretend to supernatural sources of knowledge. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

640:The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

641:There is more to be learnt from every page of David Hume than from the collected philosophical works of Hegel, Herbart, and Schleiermacher are taken together. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

642:It is, indeed, only in old age that intellectual men attain their sublime expression, whilst portraits of them in their youth show only the first traces of it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

643:And then, it is all one whether he has been happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

644:Pues cuanto más tiene uno en sí mismo, menos necesita del exterior y menos le importan los demás. Por eso la eminencia del espíritu conduce a la insociabilidad. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

645:Reason deserves to be called a prophet; for in showing us the consequence and effect of our actions in the present, does it not tell us what the future will be? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

646:To use many words to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

647:Mọi chân lý đều đi qua 3 bước: Đầu tiên, nó bị nhạo báng, Sau đó, nó bị phản đối kịch liệt, Cuối cùng, người ta chấp nhận nó như một sự thật hiển nhiên. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

648:Rascals are always sociable, more's the pity! and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others' company. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

649:Natural science is either the description of forms (morphology) or the explanation of changes (etiology). Neither can afford us the information we chiefly desire. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

650:The mother of useful arts is necessity; that of the fine arts is luxury. For father the former has intellect; the latter genius, which itself is a kind of luxury. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

651:Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

652:Education stuffs you full of ideas without the coinciding experience that gave rise to those ideas in the first place, giving you incorrect perspective and notions. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

653:Every hero is a Samson. The strong man succumbs to the intrigues of the weak and the many; and if in the end he loses all patience he crushes both them and himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

654:In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

655:A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

656:It is this which makes suicide easier: for the physical pain associated with it loses all significance in the eyes of one afflicted by excessive spiritual suffering. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

657:Just as the witticism brings two very different real objects under one concept, the pun brings two different concepts, by the assistance of accident, under one word. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

658:It is most important to allow the brain the full measure of sleep which is required to restore it; for sleep is to a man's whole nature what winding up is to a clock. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

659:Our greatest sufferings do not lie in the present, as intuitive representations or immediate feeling, but rather in reason, as abstract concepts, tormenting thoughts. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

660:The effect of music is so very much more powerful and penetrating than is that of the other arts, for these others speak only of the shadow, but music of the essence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

661:The eternal being which, as it lives in us, also lives in every animal ... the animal is in essence absolutely the same thing that we are. - On Religion ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

662:All the cruelty and torment of which the world is full is in fact merely the necessary result of the totality of the forms under which the will to live is objectified. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

663:A spring never free from the pressure of some foreign body at last loses its elasticity; and so does the mind if other people’s thoughts are constantly forced upon it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

664:Belief is like love: it cannot be compelled; and as any attempt to compel love produces hate, so it is the attempt to compel belief which first produces real unbelief. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

665:The beard, being a half-mask, should be forbidden by the police - It is, moreover, as a sexual symbol in the middle of the face, obscene: that is why it pleases women. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

666:A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

667:Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them; but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

668:We should treat with indulgence every human folly, failing, and vice, bearing in mind that what we have before us are simply our own failings, follies, and vices. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

669:Fundamental disposition towards others, assuming the character either of Envy or of Sympathy, is the point at which the moral virtues and vices of mankind first diverge. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

670:La compasión por los animales está íntimamente asociada con la bondad del carácter y puede ser afirmado que el que es cruel con los animales no puede ser un buen hombre. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

671:As German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer pointed out, Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will. (One can choose what to do, but not what to want.) ~ Christopher Ryan,

672:(Politeness is) a tacit agreement that people's miserable defects, whether moral or intellectual, shall on either side be ignored and not be made the subject of reproach. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

673:[«Recuerda que en tiempos arduos hay que conservar la ecuanimidad, lo mismo que en buenos un ánimo que domina prudentemente la alegría excesiva.» Horacio, Carmina, II, 3] ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

674:there are very few who can think, but every man wants to have an opinion; and what remains but to take it ready-made from others, instead of forming opinions for himself? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

675:Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

676:True brevity of expression consists in a man only saying what is worth saying, while avoiding all diffuse explanations of things which every one can think out for himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

677:The fourfold root of the principle of sufficent reason is "Anything perceived has a cause. All conclusions have premises. All effects have causes. All actions have motives. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

678:Whenever we are not occupied in one of these ways, but cast upon existence itself, its vain and worthless nature is brought home to us; and this is what we mean by boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

679:When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

680:Memory works like the collection glass in the Camera obscura: it gathers everything together and therewith produces a far more beautiful picture than was present originally. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

681:Seneca[1] rightly remarks, ut quisque contemtissimus et ludibrio est, ita solutissimae est, the more contemptible and ridiculous a man is,-the readier he is with his tongue. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

682:The truth is that when an author begins to write for the sake of covering paper, he is cheating the reader; because he writes under the pretext that he has something to say. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

683:We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

684:What a bad conscience religion must have is to be judged by the fact that it is forbidden under pain of such severe punishment to mock it. - On Religion ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

685:If anyone spends almost the whole day in reading...he gradually loses the capacity for thinking...This is the case with many learned persons; they have read themselves stupid ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

686:If a person is stupid, we excuse him by saying that he cannot help it; but if we attempted to excuse in precisely the same way the person who is bad, we should be laughed at. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

687:It takes place, by and large, with the same sort of necessity as a tree brings forth fruit, and demands of the world no more than a soil on which the individual can flourish. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

688:The animal lacks both anxiety and hope because its consciousness is restricted to what is clearly evident and thus to the present moment: the animal is the present incarnate. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

689:The happiest lot is not to have experienced the keenest delights or the greatest pleasures, but to have brought life to a close without any very great pain, bodily or mental. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

690:With health, everything is a source of pleasure; without it, nothing else, whatever it may be, is enjoyable...Healt h is by far the most important element in human happiness. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

691:[...] it is rare for a man who teaches to know his subject thoroughly; for if he studies it as he ought, he has in most cases no time left in which to teach it. [...] ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

692:Mitleid mit den Thieren hängt mit der Güte des Charakters so genau zusammen, daß man zuversichtlich behaupten darf, wer gegen Thiere grausam ist, könne kein guter Mensch seyn. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

693:Os caprichos advindos do instinto sexual são totalmente análogos aos fogos fátuos: enganam do modo mais vivo, mas, se os seguimos, eles conduzem-nos a um pântano e desaparecem. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

694:To buy books would be a good thing if we could also buy the time to read them; but the purchase of books is often mistaken for the assimilation and mastering of their contents. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

695:When you look back on your life, it looks as though it were a plot, but when you are into it, it's a mess: just one surprise after another. Then, later, you see it was perfect. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

696:Death is the true inspiring genius, or the muse of philosophy, wherefore Socrates has defined the latter as θανάτου μελέτη. Indeed without death men would scarcely philosophise. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

697:How is it possible that suffering that is neither my own nor of my concern should immediately affect me as though it were my own, and with such force that is moves me to action? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

698:Personal courage is really a very subordinate virtue-a virtue, indeed, in which we are surpassed by the lower animals; or else you would not hear people say, as brave as a lion. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

699:Every state of welfare, every feeling of satisfaction, is negative in its character; that is to say, it consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of existence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

700:In the first place, no man is happy but strives his whole life long after a supposed happiness which he seldom attains, and even if he does it is only to be disappointed with it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

701:Men are a thousand times more intent on becoming rich than on acquiring culture, though it is quite certain that what a man IS contributes more to his happiness than what he HAS. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

702:Nothing shocks our moral feelings so deeply as cruelty does. We can forgive every other crime, but not cruelty. The reason for this is that it is the very opposite of compassion. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

703:Animalul nu cunoaste moartea decit in momentul ultimei expiratii, pe cind omul se apropie de momentul fatal constient fiind de pasii care-l apropie neincetat de abisul insondabil. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

704:For it is a matter of daily observation that people take the greatest pleasure in that which satisfies their vanity; and vanity cannot be satisfied without comparison with others. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

705:The fruits of Christianity were religious wars, butcheries, crusades, inquisitions, extermination of the natives of America, and the introduction of African slaves in their place. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

706:The man who sees two or three generations is like one who sits in the conjuror's booth at a fair, and sees the same tricks two or three times. They are meant to be seen only once. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

707:This world could not have been the work of an all-loving being, but that of a devil, who had brought creatures into existence in order to delight in the sight of their sufferings. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

708:It is a curious fact that in bad days we can very vividly recall the good time that is now no more; but that in good days, we have only a very cold and imperfect memory of the bad. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

709:Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

710:Seria bom comprar livros se, junto com eles, fosse possível comprar também o tempo para lê-los, mas na maioria das vezes troca-se a compra dos livros pela aquisição do seu conteúdo. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

711:Something of great importance now past is inferior to something of little importance now present, in that the latter is a reality, and related to the former as something to nothing. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

712:The past and the future (considered apart from the consequences of their content) are empty as a dream, and the present is only the indivisible and unenduring boundary between them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

713:We see in tragedy the noblest men, after a long conflict and suffering, finally renounce forever all the pleasure of life and the aims till then pursued so keenly, or cheerfully and ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

714:What does the absolute mean? Something that is, and of which (under pain of punishment) we dare not ask further whence and why it is. A precious rarity for professors of philosophy! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

715:If a man sets out to hate all the miserable creatures he meets, he will not have much energy left for anything else; whereas he can despise them, one and all, with the greatest ease. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

716:If you feel irritated by the absurd remarks of two people whose conversation you happen to overhear, you should imagine that you are listening to a dialogue of two fools in a comedy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

717:Scholars are those who have read in books, but thinkers, men of genius, world-enlighteners, and reformers of the human race are those who have read directly in the book of the world. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

718:Will without intellect is the most vulgar and common thing in the world, possessed by every blockhead, who, in the gratification of his passions, shows the stuff of which he is made. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

719:And I may say, further, that a certain amount of care or pain or trouble is necessary for every man at all times. A ship without ballast is unstable and will not go straight. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

720:Poverty and slavery are thus only two forms ofthe same thing, the essence of which is that a man's energies are expended for the most part not on his own behalf but on that of others. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

721:That you should write down valuable ideas that occur to you as soon as possible goes without saying: we sometimes forget even what we have done, so how much more what we have thought. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

722:It is only the man whose intellect is clouded by his sexual impulse that could give the name of the fair sex to that undersized, narrow-shouldered, broad-hipped, and short-legged race. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

723:Hay pocas cosas que pongan con tanta seguridad de buen humor como el relato de alguna calamidad que se ha sufrido últimamente, o también la sincera confesión de una debilidad personal". ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

724:Não há nada mais fácil do que escrever de tal maneira que ninguém entenda; em compensação, nada mais difícil do que expressar pensamentos significativos de modo que todos os compreendam ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

725:One simple test of the claim that the pleasure in the world outweighs the pain…is to compare the feelings of an animal that is devouring another with those of the animal being devoured. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

726:Said in reference to Ludwig Wittgenstein: "Talent is like the marksman who hits a target which others cannot reach; genius is like the marksman who hits a target others cannot even see. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

727:to be superior (überlegen) to others in real life, the indispensable condition is to be thoughtful and deliberate (überlegt), in other words, to set to work in accordance with concepts. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

728:To measure a man's happiness only by what he gets, and not also by what he expects to get, is as futile as to try and express a fraction which shall have a numerator but no denominator. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

729:Não há nada mais fácil do que escrever de tal maneira que ninguém entenda; em compensação, nada mais difícil do que expressar pensamentos significativos de modo que todos os compreendam. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

730:There is some wisdom in taking a gloomy view, in looking upon the world as a kind of Hell, and in confining one's efforts to securing a little room that shall not be exposed to the fire. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

731:The ultimate aim of all love affairs ... is more important than all other aims in man's life; and therefore it is quite worthy of the profound seriousness with which everyone pursues it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

732:What a man is: that is to say, personality, in the widest sense of the word; under which are included health, strength, beauty, temperament, moral character, intelligence, and education. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

733:In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theatre before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

734:JedeTrennung gibt einenVorgeschmack desTodesund jedes Wiedersehen einenVorgeschmack der Auferstehung. Every parting is a foretaste of death, and every reunion a foretaste of resurrection. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

735:Knowledge is power. The devil it is! One man can have a great deal of knowledge without its giving him the least power, while another possesses supreme authority but next to no knowledge. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

736:The scenes of our life are like pictures done in rough mosaic. Looked at close, they produce no effect. There is nothing beautiful to be found in them, unless you stand some distance off. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

737:une foule énorme de gens ne sont sur la terre que pour mettre finalement au monde, à la suite de longs et mystérieux croisements, un homme qui, entre mille, possédera quelque indépendance ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

738:Courage, however, may also be explained as a readiness to meet ills that threaten at the moment, in order to avoid greater ills that lie in the future; whereas cowardice does the contrary. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

739:For to kill a man in a fair fight, is to prove that you are superior to him in strength or skill; and to justify the deed, you must assume that the right of the stronger is really a right. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

740:For what is modesty but hypocritical humility, by means of which, in a world swelling with vile envy, a man seeks to beg pardon for his excellences and merits from those who have none? For ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

741:Our moral virtues benefit mainly other people; intellectual virtues, on the other hand, benefit primarily ourselves; therefore the former make us universally popular, the latter unpopular. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

742:There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake. The first kind have had thoughts or experiences which seem to ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

743:To free a man from error is to give, not to take away. Knowledge that a thing is false is a truth. Error always does harm; sooner or later it will bring mischief to the man who harbors it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

744:Descartes is rightly regarded as the father of modern philosophy primarily and generally because he helped the faculty of reason to stand on its own feet by teaching men to use their brains ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

745:Everywhere where detestable Islam has not yet driven out the ancient, profound religions of humanity with fire and sword, my ascetic results would have to fear the reproach of being trivial ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

746:It is for this reason that we find that co-existence, which could neither be in time alone, for time has no contiguity, nor in space alone, for space has no before, after, or now, ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

747:Men of learning are those who have read the contents of books. Thinkers, geniuses, and those who have enlightened the world and furthered the race of men, are those who have made direct use ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

748:The charlatan takes very different shapes according to circumstances; but at bottom he is a man who cares nothing about knowledge for its own sake, and only strives to gain the semblance of ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

749:Alles Urdenken geschieht in Bildern: darum ist die Phantasie ein so nothwendiges Werkzeug desselben, und werden phantasielose Köpfe nie etwas Großes leisten, - es sei denn in der Mathematik. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

750:And, as a general rule, it is more advisable to show your intelligence by saying nothing than by speaking out; for silence is a matter of prudence whilst speech has something in it of vanity ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

751:Intellect is a magnitude of intensity, not a magnitude of extension: which is why in this respect one man can confidently take on ten thousand, and a thousand fools do not make one wise man. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

752:In short, a large part of the powers of the human race is taken away from the production of what is necessary, in order to bring what is superfluous and unnecessary within the reach of a few. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

753:All the pride and pleasure of the world, mirrored in the dull consciousness of a fool, are poor indeed compared with the imagination of Cervantes writing his Don Quixote in a miserable prison. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

754:Das Ganze der Erfahrung gleicht einer Geheimschrift und die Philosophie der Entzifferung derselben. The whole of experience is like a cryptograph, and philosophy is like the deciphering of it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

755:Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death. The higher the interest rate and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

756:There is only one healing force, and that is nature; in pills and ointments there is none. At most they can give the healing force of nature a hint about where there is something for it to do. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

757:[T]his need for excitement of the will manifests itself very specially in the discovery and support of card-playing, which is quite peculiarly the expression of the miserable side of humanity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

758:Vazuta de departe si de sus, viata fiecarui om, in intregul ei si in ceea ce o caracterizeaza, se prezinta totdeauna ca un spectacol dramatic; luata in amanunt, ea are caracterul unei comedii. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

759:Truth is no prostitute, that throws herself away upon those who do not desire her; she is rather so coy a beauty that he who sacrifices everything to her cannot even then be sure of her favour. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

760:De um modo geral, a forragem da cocheira dos professores é a mais apropriada para esses ruminantes. Em contrapartida, aqueles que recebem o seu alimento das mãos da natureza preferem o ar livre. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

761:I believe a person of any fine feeling scarcely ever sees a new face without a sensation akin to a shock, for the reason that it presents a new and surprising combination of unedifying elements. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

762:[T]he moralists of Europe [have] pretended that beasts have no rights... a doctrine revolting/gross/barbarous... on which a native of the Asiatic uplands could not look without righteous horror. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

763:When a new truth enters the world, the first stage of reaction to it is ridicule, the second stage is violent opposition, and in the third stage, that truth comes to be regarded as self-evident. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

764:Wir sind eben bloß zeitliche, endliche, vergängliche, traumartige, wie Schatten vorüberfliegende Wesen." Und was sollte denen ein "Intellekt, der unendliche, ewige, absolute Verhältnisse fasste? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

765:Boredom is an evil that is not to be estimated lightly. It can come in the end to real despair. The public authority takes precautions against it everywhere, as against other universal calamities. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

766:For the more a man has in himself, the less he will want from other people,—the less, indeed, other people can be to him. This is why a high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial. True, ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

767:I have long held the opinion that the amount of noise that anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity and therefore be regarded as a pretty fair measure of it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

768:Many books serve merely to show how many ways there are of being wrong, and how far astray you yourself would go if you followed their guidance. You should read only when your own thoughts dry up. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

769:The faculty for remembering is not diminished in proportion to what one has learnt, just as little as the number of moulds in which you cast sand lessens its capacity for being cast in new moulds. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

770:Je veux penser à toi, Arthur Schopenhauer, / Je t’aime et je vois dans le reflet des vitres, / Le monde est sans issue et je suis un vieux pitre, / Il fait froid. Il fait très froid. Adieu la Terre, ~ Michel Houellebecq,

771:The intellectual attainments of a man who thinks for himself resemble a fine painting, where the light and shade are correct, the tone sustained, the colour perfectly hamonized; it is true to life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

772:Sociability belongs to the most dangerous, even destructive inclinations, since it brings us into contact with beings the great majority of whom are morally bad and intellectually dull or perverted. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

773:National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

774:Only that which is innate is genuine and will hold water; and every man who wants to achieve something, whether in practical life, in literature, or in art, must follow the rules without knowing them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

775:Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death; and the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

776:The ultimate foundation of honor is the conviction that moral character is unalterable: a single bad action implies that future actions of the same kind will, under similar circumstances, also be bad. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

777:Whatever folly men commit, be their shortcomings or their vices what they may, let us exercise forbearance; remember that when these faults appear in others it is our follies and vices that we behold. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

778:I have not yet spoken my last word about women. I believe that if a woman succeeds in withdrawing from the mass, or rather raising herself from above the mass, she grows ceaselessly and more than a man. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

779:Qualsiasi uomo notevole, chiunque cioè non appartenga a quei 5/6 dell'umanità dotati tanto miseramente dalla natura, rimarrà dopo i quarant'anni difficilmente esente da una certa traccia di misantropia. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

780:There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

781:Women remain children all their lives, for they always see only what is near at hand, cling to the present, take the appearance of a thing for reality, and prefer trifling matters to the most important. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

782:Happiness belongs to those who are sufficient unto themselves. For all external sources of happiness and pleasure are, by their very nature, highly uncertain, precarious, ephemeral and subject to chance. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

783:No animal ever torments another for the mere purpose of tormenting, but man does it, and it is this that constitutes the diabolical feature in his character which is so much worse than the merely animal. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

784:We all feel that we are something other than a being which someone once created out of nothing: from this arises the confidence that, while death may be able to end our life, it cannot end our existence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

785:When a man has reached a condition in which he believes that a thing must happen because he does not wish it, and that what he wishes to happen never will be, this is really the state called desperation. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

786:"That which thinkers have discovered before us, it is of great service and value to ourselves to discover by our own means, independently of them, and before we know them..." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer (On Philosophy and Its Method),

787:The life of every individual, viewed as a whole and in general, and when only its most significant features are emphasized, is really a tragedy; but gone through in detail it has the character of a comedy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

788:To the honor of Spinoza I must mention that his more accurate understanding explained all general concepts as having to the contrary arisen from an obfuscation of that of which one is perceptually cognizant ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

789:For an author to write as he speaks is just as reprehensible as the opposite fault, to speak as he writes; for this gives a pedantic effect to what he says, and at the same time makes him hardly intelligible ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

790:For an author to write as he speaks is just as reprehensible as the opposite fault, to speak as he writes; for this gives a pedantic effect to what he says, and at the same time makes him hardly intelligible. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

791:Therefore books do not take the place of experience, because concepts always remain universal, and so do not reach down to the particular; yet it is precisely the particular that has to be dealt with in life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

792:Thus the will-to-live generally feasts on itself, and is in different forms its own nourishment, till finally the human race, because it subdues all the others, regards nature as manufactured for its own use. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

793:Por eso habría que evitar las ilusiones, pues cualquier dolor excesivo que aparece repentinamente no es más que la caída desde semejante punto elevado, o sea, la desaparición de una ilusión que lo ha producido. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

794:The happiness which we receive from ourselves is greater than that which we obtain from our surroundings. . . . The world in which a person lives shapes itself chiefly by the way in which he or she looks at it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

795:There are, in the capacities of mankind, three varieties: one man will understand a thing by himself; another so far as it is explained to him; a third, neither of himself nor when it is put clearly before him. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

796:Adevărul nu este o prostituată care se aruncă de gâtul celor care n-o doresc; el este, dimpotrivă, o femeie frumoasă şi atât de distantă, încât nici cel care-i jertfeşte totul nu poate fi sigur de favorurile ei. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

797:A man's face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man's thoughts and aspirations. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

798:Only through the unification of time and space is there matter, i.e. the possibility of simultaneity, and through that, duration, and again through these, the persistence of substance during alteration of state. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

799:The fly ought to be used as the symbol of impertinence and audacity; for whilst all other animals shun man more than anything else, and run away even before he comes near them, the fly lights upon his very nose. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

800:Therefore, we do not become conscious of the three greatest blessings of life as such, namely health, youth, and freedom, as long as we possess them, but only after we have lost them; for they too are negations. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

801:He who can see truly in the midst of general infatuation is like a man whose watch keeps good time, when all clocks in the town in which he lives are wrong. He alone knows the right time; what use is that to him? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

802:Indeed, intolerance is essential only to monotheism; an only God is by nature a jealous God who will not allow another to live. On the other hand, polytheistic gods are naturally tolerant, they live and let live. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

803:It often happens that we blurt out things that may in some kind of way be harmful to us, but we are silent about things that may make us look ridiculous; because in this case effect follows very quickly on cause. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

804:The egoist feels lonely, surrounded by threatening and alien events; all his desires are sunk in his own concerns. A kind person lives in a world of beneficent events, whose goodness matches his own. —ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER ~ Leo Tolstoy,

805:The first forty years of our life give the text, the next thirty furnish the commentary upon it, which enables us rightly to understand the true meaning and connection of the text with its moral and its beauties. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

806:We should be surprised that a matter that generally plays such an important part in the life of man has hitherto been almost entirely disregarded by philosophers, and lies before us as raw and untreated material. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

807:Life is only the mirror into which a man gazes not in order that he may get a reflection of himself, but that he may come to understand himself by that reflection; that he may see what it is that the mirror shows. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

808:Shame on such a morality that is worthy of pariahs, and that fails to recognize the eternal essence that exists in every living thing, and shines forth with inscrutable significance from all eyes that see the sun! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

809:The little honesty existing among authors is to be seen in the outrageous way in which they misquote from the writings of others. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, On Authorship; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 653-54.,

810:That the Negroes were enslaved more than other races, and on a large scale, is evidently a result of their being, in contrast to other races, inferior in intelligence - which, however, does not justify such slavery ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

811:To become reconciled to a friend with whom you have broken, is a form of weakness; and you pay the penalty of it when he takes the first opportunity of doing precisely the very thing which brought about the breach. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

812:O Estado não proibirá ninguém de portar continuamente pensamentos sobre assassinato e envenenamento, desde que saiba com certeza que o medo do carrasco e da guilhotina a todo momento obstará os efeitos desse querer. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

813:O horizonte intelectual do homem normal pode até ultrapassar o do animal - cuja existência, sem nenhuma consciência do futuro e do passado, é inteiramente presente -, mas não está tão distante deste quanto se supõe. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

814:Truth is no harlot who throws her arms round the neck of him who does not desire her; on the contrary, she is so coy a beauty that even the man who sacrifices everything to her can still not be certain of her favors. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

815:We, the salt of the earth, should endeavor to follow, by never letting anything disturb us in the pursuit of our intellectual life, however much the storm of the world may invade and agitate our personal environment. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

816:Cuando oigo música, mi imaginación juega a menudo con la idea de que la vida de todos los hombres y la mía propia no son más que sueños de un espíritu eterno, buenos o malos sueños, de que cada muerte es un despertar. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

817:It was the 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer who said that all truth passes through three distinct stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. ~ Ziad Masri,

818:Sometimes we credit ourselves with a longing to be in some distant spot, whereas, in truth, we are only longing to have the time back again which we spent there---days when we were younger and fresher than we are now. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

819:we have found that the whole essence of matter lies in action, a i.e. in causality: as a result, matter must also unify space and time, that is, matter must possess the properties of both time and space simultaneously, ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

820:Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. This is an error of the intellect as inevitable as that error of the eye which lets you fancy that on the horizon heaven and earth meet. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

821:It is the possession of a great heart or a great head, and not the mere fame of it, which is worth having, and conducive to happiness. Not fame, but that which deserves to be famous, is what a man should hold in esteem. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

822:The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

823:There is no absurdity so palpable that one could not fix it firmly in the head of every man on earth provided one began to imprint it before his sixth year by ceaselessly rehearsing it before him with solemn earnestness. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

824:Orice animal de prada ajunge mormintul viu a inca o mie de alti pradatori si nu rezista in timp decit cu pretul unui lung sir de martirii. Inteligenta mareste capacitatea de a suferii, atingind la om gradul cel mai inalt. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

825:Philosophy ... is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

826:A quick test of the assertion that enjoyment outweighs pain in this world, or that they are at any rate balanced, would be to compare the feelings of an animal engaged in eating another with those of the animal being eaten ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

827:Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

828:If anyone wishes for entertainment, such as will prevent him feeling solitary even when he is alone, let me recommend the company of dogs, whose moral and intellectual qualities may almost afford delight and gratification. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

829:To gain anything we have longed for is only to discover how vain and empty it is; and even though we are always living in expectation of better things, at the same time we often repent and long to have the past back again. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

830:Authors may be divided into falling stars, planets, and fixed stars: the first have a momentary effect; the second have a much longer duration; but the third are unchangeable, possess their own light, and work for all time. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

831:Demopheles: Every man's faith is sacred to him, therefore it should be sacred to you too. Philalethes: I deny your conclusion! I can't see why, because other people are simple-minded, I should respect a pack of lies. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

832:Men best show their character in trifles, where they are not on their guard. It is in the simplest habits, that we often see the boundless egotism which pays no regard to the feelings of others and denies nothing to itself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

833:The nobler and more perfect a thing is, the later and slower it is in arriving at maturity. A man reaches the maturity of his reasoning powers and mental faculties hardly before the age of twenty-eight; a woman at eighteen. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

834:Only the carrying out stamps the resolve; till then, it is always a mere intention that can be altered; it exists only in reason, in the abstract. Only in reflection are willing and acting different; in reality they are one. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

835:To become indignant at [people's] conduct is as foolish as to be angry with a stone because it rolls into your path. And with many people the wisest thing you can do, is to resolve to make use of those whom you cannot alter. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

836:(...) deve-se evitar toda prolixidade e todo entrelaçamento de observações que não valem o esforço da leitura. (...) É sempre melhor deixar de lado algo bom do que incluir algo insignificante. (...) Sobretudo, não dizer tudo! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

837:Quando procuramos estimular a nossa inteligência e o nosso conhecimento, sentimos constantemente a resistência da época como um peso que devemos arrastar, mas que, apesar de todo o nosso esforço, insiste em manter-se no chão. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

838:Therefore the man of genius requires imagination, in order to see in things not what nature has actually formed, but what she endeavoured to form, yet did not bring about, because of the conflict of her forms with one another ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

839:The weakness of their reasoning faculty also explains why women show more sympathy for the unfortunate than men;... and why, on the contrary, they are inferior to men as regards justice, and less honourable and conscientious. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

840:No greater mistake can be made than to imagine that what has been written latest is always the more correct; that what is written later on is an improvement on what was written previously; and that every change means progress. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

841:alteration (i.e. change that takes place according to causal law) always concerns a particular part of space and, simultaneously and together with this, a particular part of time. Consequently, causality unites space with time. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

842:Every parting gives a foretaste of death; every remeeting a foretaste of the resurrection. That is why even people who are indifferent to each other rejoice so much if they meet again after twenty or thirty years of separation. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

843:optimism, where it is not just the thoughtless talk of someone with only words in his flat head, strikes me as not only absurd, but even a truly wicked way of thinking, a bitter mockery of the unspeakable sufferings of humanity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

844:They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice... that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

845:There is in the world only the choice between loneliness and vulgarity. All young people should be taught now to put up with loneliness ... because the less man is compelled to come into contact with others, the better off he is. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

846:They tell us that Suicide is the greatest piece of Cowardice... That Suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in this world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

847:In our early youth we sit before the life that lies ahead of us like children sitting before the curtain in a theatre, in happy and tense anticipation of whatever is going to appear. Luckily we do not know what really will appear. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

848:The characteristic mark of minds of the first rank is the immediacy of all their judgements. Everything they produce is the result of thinking for themselves and already in the way it is spoken everywhere announces itself as such. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

849:The deep pain that is felt at the death of every friendly soul arises from the feeling that there is in every individual something which is inexpressible, peculiar to him alone, and is, therefore, absolutely and irretrievably lost. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

850:They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice... that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

851:Means at our disposal should be regarded as a bulwark against the many evils and misfortunes that can occur. We should not regard such wealth as a permission or even an obligation to procure for ourselves the pleasures of the world. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

852:Whether we are in a pleasant or a painful state depends, finally, upon the kind of matter that pervades and engrosses our consciousness and what we compare it to - better and we envious and sad, worse and we feel grateful and happy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

853:A human being does at all times only what he wills, and yet does it necessarily. But that rests on the fact that he is what he wills: for out of what he is everything that he does at any time follows necessarily. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

854:Whoever wants his judgment to be believed, should express it coolly and dispassionately; for all vehemence springs from the will. And so the judgment might be attributed to the will and not to knowledge, which by its nature is cold. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

855:Thus, flowers cannot be preserved, but their ethereal oil, their essence, with the same smell and the same virtues, can. The conduct that has had correct concepts for its guidance will, in the result, coincide with the reality intended. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

856:Brahma is said to have produced the world by a kind of fall or mistake; and in order to atone for his folly, he is bound to remain in it himself until he works out his redemption. As an account of the origin of things, that is admirable! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

857:If a relationship is perfectly natural there will be a complete fusion of the happiness of both of you-owing to fellow-feeling and various other laws which govern our natures, this is, quite simply, the greatest happiness that can exist. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

858:If life — the craving for which is the very essence of our being — were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

859:The true emblem of causa sui is Baron Münchhausen, who, clamping his legs around his horse as it sinks in the water, pulls his pigtail up over his head and raises himself and the horse into the heights; under this emblem, put: causa sui. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

860:Time is continually pressing upon us, never letting us take breath, but always coming after us, like a taskmaster with a whip. If at any moment Time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the misery of boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

861:Society is in this respect like a fire-the wise man warming himself at a proper distance from it; not coming too close, like the fool, who, on getting scorched, runs away and shivers in solitude, loud in his complaint that the fire burns. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

862:The result is that much reading robs the mind of all elasticity, as the continual pressure of a weight does a spring, and that the surest way of never having any thoughts of your own is to pick up a book every time you have a free moment. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

863:Exigir la inmortalidad del individuo es querer perpetuar un error hasta el infinito. En el fondo, toda individualidad es un error especial, una equivocación, algo que no debiera existir, el verdadero objetivo de la vida es librarnos de él. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

864:If he has a soul above the common, or if he is a man of genius, he will occasionally feel like some noble prisoner of state, condemned to work in the galleys with common criminals; and he will follow his example and try to isolate himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

865:Lack of the power to discriminate is no less evident in the sciences, namely in the tenacious life of false and refuted theories. Once come into general credit, they continue to defy truth for centuries. - On Various Subjects ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

866:Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

867:Pleasure and well-being is negative and suffering positive, the happiness of a given life is not to be measured according to the joys and pleasures it contains but according to the absence of the positive element, the absence of suffering. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

868:Sometimes I speak to men and women just as a little girl speaks to her doll. She knows, of course, that the doll does not understand her, but she creates for herself the joy of communication through a pleasant and conscious self-deception. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

869:Cada um será tanto mais sociável quanto mais pobre for de espírito, e, em geral, mais vulgar (o que torna o homem saudável é justamente a sua pobreza interior). Pois, no mundo, não se tem muito além da escolha entre solidão e a vulgaridade. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

870:Would a musician feel flattered by the loud applause of an audience if he knew that they were nearly all deaf, and that, to conceal their infirmity, they set to work to clap vigorously as soon as ever they saw one or two persons applauding? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

871:Every time a man is begotten and born, the clock of human life is wound up anew to repeat once more its same old tune that has already been played innumerable times, movement by movement and measure by measure, with insignificant variations. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

872:If now the all-mother sends forth her children without protection to a thousand threatening dangers, this can only be because she knows that if they fall they fall back into her womb, where they are safe; therefore their fall is a mere jest. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

873:The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

874:That you should write down valuable ideas that occur to you as soon as possible goes without saying: we sometimes forget even what we have done, so how much more what we have thought. Thoughts, however, come not when we but when they want. On ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

875:The assumption that animals are without rights, and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance, is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

876:The ordinary man places his life’s happiness in things external to him, in property, rank, wife and children, friends, society, and the like, so that when he loses them or finds them disappointing, the foundation of his happiness is destroyed. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

877:To repeat abstractly, universally, and distinctly in concepts the whole inner nature of the world , and thus to deposit it as a reflected image in permanent concepts always ready for the faculty of reason , this and nothing else is philosophy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

878:"What a person is for himself, what abides with him in his loneliness and isolation and what no one can give or take away from him, is obviously more essential for him than everything that he possesses or what he may be in the eyes of others." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

879:What is time? What is this entity consisting of mere movement without anything that moves? and, What is space, this omnipresent nothing out of which no thing can emerge without ceasing to be something? That time and space belong to the subject, ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

880:How entirely does the Upanishad breathe throughout the holy spirit of the Vedas! How is every one who by a diligent study of its Persian Latin has become familiar with that incomparable book stirred by that spirit to the very depth of his Soul ! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

881:If you stroke a cat, it will purr; and, as inevitably, if you praise a man, a sweet expression of delight will appear on his face; and even though the praise is a palpable lie, it will be welcome, if the matter is one on which he prides himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

882:Imitation and custom are the spring of almost all human action. The cause of it is that men fight shy of all and any sort of reflection, and very properly mistrust their own discernment. At the same time this remarkably strong imitative instinct ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

883:To be shocked at how deeply rejection hurts is to ignore what acceptance involves. We must never allow our suffering to be compounded by suggestions that there is something odd in suffering so deeply. There would be something amiss if we didn't. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

884:A man may begin by following the craving of desire, until he comes to see how hollow and unreal a thing is life, how deceitful are its pleasures, what horrible aspects it possesses; and this it is that makes people hermits, penitents, Magdalenes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

885:A pena está para o pensamento como a bengala está para o andar. Da mesma maneira que se caminha com mais leveza sem bengala, o pensamento mais pleno se dá sem a pena. Apenas quando uma pessoa começa a ficar velha ela gosta de usar bengala e pena. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

886:Life is never beautiful, but only the pictures of life are so in the transfiguring mirror of art or poetry; especially in youth, when we do not yet know it. Many a youth would receive great peace of mind if one could assist him to this knowledge. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

887:Pleasure is never as pleasant as we expected it to be and pain is always more painful. The pain in the world always outweighs the pleasure. If you don't believe it, compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is eating the other. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

888:Education perverts the mind since we are directly opposing the natural development of our mind by obtaining ideas first and observations last. This is why so few men of learning have such sound common sense as is quite common among the illiterate. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

889:Men need some kind of external activity, because they are inactive within. Contrarily, if they are active within, they do not care to be dragged out of themselves; it disturbs and impedes their thoughts in a way that is often most ruinous to them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

890:What a person is for himself, what abides with him in his loneliness and isolation, and what no one can give or take away from him, this is obviously more essential for him than everything that he possesses or what he may be in the eyes of others. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

891:Apenas os pensamentos próprios são verdadeiros e têm vida, pois somente eles são entendidos de modo autêntico e completo. Pensamentos alheios, lidos, são como as sobras da refeição de outra pessoa, ou como as roupas deixadas por um hóspede na casa. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

892:In every human undertaking there is something which is not in our power and does not come within our calculations; the wish to win this for oneself is the origin of the gods. "Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor" is an old and true saying of Petronius. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

893:Many undoubtedly owe their good fortune to the circumstance that they possess a pleasing smile with which they win hearts. Yet these hearts would do better to beware and to learn from Hamlet's tables that one may smile, and smile, and be a villain. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

894:Spirit? Who is that fellow? And where do you know him from? Is he perhaps not merely an arbitrary and convenient hypostasis that you have not even defined, let alone deduced or proved? Do you think you have an audience of old women in front of you? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

895:We may divide thinkers into those who think for themselves and those who think through others. The latter are the rule and the former the exception. The first are original thinkers in a double sense, and egotists in the noblest meaning of the word. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

896:As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

897:Not the least of the torments which plague our existence is the constant pressure of time, which never lets us so much as draw breath but pursues us all like a taskmaster with a whip. It ceases to persecute only him it has delivered over to boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

898:University philosophy is, as a rule, mere juggling. Its real aim is to impart to the students, in the deepest ground of their thought, that tendency of mind which the ministry that appoints to the professorships regards as consistent with its views. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

899:What a person is for himself, what abides with him in his loneliness and isolation, and what no one can give or take away from him, this is obviously more essential for him than everything that he possesses or what he may be in the eyes of others... ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

900:Abstract reasoning serves rather to fix the immediate cognition of the understanding for reason by setting it down in abstract concepts, that is, by making it clear,e i.e. putting it into a state to be interpreted for others, to make it meaningful.f – ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

901:Nossa vaidade congênita, especialmente suscetível em tudo o que diz respeito à capacidade intelectual, não quer aceitar que aquilo que num primeiro momento sustentávamos como verdadeiro se mostre falso, e verdadeiro aquilo que o adversário sustentava. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

902:The life of an individual is a constant struggle, and not merely a metaphorical one against want or boredom, but also an actual struggle against other people. He discovers adversaries everywhere, lives in continual conflict and dies with sword in hand. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

903:Then again we find that young girls in their hearts regard their domestic or other affairs as secondary things, if not as a mere jest. Love, conquests, and all that these include, such as dressing, dancing, and so on, they give their serious attention. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

904:Alle Befriedigung, oder was man gemeinhin Glu« ck nennt, ist eigentlich und wesentlich immer nur negativ und durchaus nie positiv. All satisfaction, or what iscommonlycalled happiness, is really and essentially always negative only, and never positive. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

905:The best works of great men all come from the time when they had to write either for nothing or for very little pay. This is confirmed by the Spanish proverb: honra y provecho no caben en un saco (Honour and money are not to be found in the same purse). ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

906:While illusion distorts reality for a moment, error can reign for a millennia in abstractions, throw its iron yoke over whole peoples and stifle the noblest impulses of humanity; those it cannot deceive are left in chains by those it has, by its slaves. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

907:A book can never be anything more than the impress of its author's thoughts; and the value of these will lie either in the matter about which he has thought, or in the form which his thoughts take, in other words, what it is that he has thought about it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

908:Faith is like love, it cannot be forced. Therefore it is a dangerous operation if an attempt be made to introduce or bind it by state regulations; for, as the attempt to force love begets hatred, so also to compel religious belief produces rank unbelief. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

909:Mesmo sem haver nenhum motivo especial, trazia em mim uma contínua e íntima preocupação, que me levava a ver e procurar perigos onde não havia. Isso amplia ao infinito a menor inquietação e me dificulta por completo o relacionamento com os seres humanos. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

910:Our religions will never at any time take root; the ancient wisdom of the human race will not be supplanted by the events in Galilee. On the contrary, Indian wisdom flows back to Europe, and will produce a fundamental change in our knowledge and thought. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

911:A man's delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

912:the brut first knows death when it dies, but man draws consciously nearer to it every hour that he lives; and this makes his life at times a questionable good even to him who has not recognised this character of constant anaihilation in the whole of life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

913:We must set limits to our wishes, curb our desires, moderate our anger, always remembering that an individual can attain only an infinitesimal share in anything that is worth having; and that on the other hand, everyone must incur many of the ills of life ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

914:A book can never be anything more than the impression of its author’s thoughts. The value of these thoughts lies either in the matter about which he has thought, or in the form in which he develops his matter — that is to say, what he has thought about it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

915:A man's delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

916:As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

917:Fundamentally it is only our own basic thoughts that possess truth and life, for only these do we really understand through and through. The thoughts of another that we have read are crumbs from another's table, the cast-off clothes of an unfamiliar guest. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

918:...it was Buddhism that inspired the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, and, through him, attracted Richard Wagner. This Orientalism reflected the struggle of the German Romantics, in the words of Léon Poliakov, to free themselves from Judeo-Christian fetters. ~ Joscelyn Godwin,

919:A poet or philosopher should have no fault to find with his age if it only permits him to do his work undisturbed in his own corner; nor with his fate if the corner granted him allows of his following his vocation without having to think about other people. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

920:Hegel, installed from above, by the powers that be, as the certified Great Philosopher, was a flat-headed, insipid, nauseating, illiterate charlatan who reached the pinnacle of audacity in scribbling together and dishing up the craziest mystifying nonsense. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

921:Were an Asiatic to ask me for a definition of Europe, I should be forced to answer him: It is that part of the world which is haunted by the incredible delusion that man was created out of nothing, and that his present birth is his first entrance into life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

922:As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, [T9],

923:O desejo sexual, sobretudo quando se concentra na paixão, fixando-se numa determinada mulher é a quintessência de todas as fraudes desse nobre mundo; isso porque promete indizivelmente, infinitamente e extraordinariamente muito e cumpre miseravelmente pouco. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

924:That a god like Jehovah should have created this world of misery and woe, out of pure caprice, and because he enjoyed doing it, and should then have clapped his hands in praise of his own work, and declared everything to be very good-that will not do at all! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

925:A cortesia, assim como as moedas feitas de metal, é reconhecidamente uma moeda falsa. Não se deve economizá-la... Quem, entretanto, pratica a cortesia em detrimento de interesses reais assemelha-se àquele que despende autênticas moedas de ouro em vez de metal. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

926:as experience in fact shows that those purely rational characters commonly called practical philosophers (and rightly so, since real, i.e., theoretical, philosophers translate life into concepts, while they translate concepts into life) are surely the happiest ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

927:just because universal concepts result only from thinking away and leaving out actual and existing determinations, and are therefore the emptier the more universal they are, the use of this procedure is limited to the elaboration of knowledge already acquired. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

928:Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

929:...officers in the army, (except those in the highest positions), are paid most inadequately for the services they perform; and the deficiency is made up by honor, which is represented by titles and orders, and, in general, by the system of rank and distinction. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

930:The scenes and events of long ago, and the persons who took part in them, wear a charming aspect to the eye of memory, which sees only the outlines and takes no note of disagreeable details. The present enjoys no such advantage, and so it always seems defective. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

931:It would be better if there were nothing. Since there is more pain than pleasure on earth, every satisfaction is only transitory, creating new desires and new distresses, and the agony of the devoured animal is always far greater than the pleasure of the devourer ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

932:One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind. In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

933:Hence, in all countries the chief occupation of society is card-playing, and it is the gauge of its value, and an outward sign that it is bankrupt in thought. Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another’s money. Idiots! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

934:man is the only animal which causes pain to others with no other object than causing pain…No animal ever torments another for the sake of tormenting: but man does so, and it is this which constitutes the diabolical nature which is far worse than the merely bestial ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

935:Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts. Many books, moreover, serve merely to show how many ways there are of being wrong, and how far astray you yourself would go if you followed their guidance. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

936:Writers may be classified as meteors, planets, and fixed stars. They belong not to one system, one nation only, but to the universe. And just because they are so very far away, it is usually many years before their light is visible to the inhabitants of this earth. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

937:That human life must be some kind of mistake is sufficiently proved by the simple observation that man is a compound of needs which are hard to satisfy; that their satisfaction achieves nothing but a painless condition in which he is only given over to boredom . . . ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

938:For, after all, the foundation of our whole nature, and, therefore, of our happiness, is our physique, and the most essential factor in happiness is health, and, next in importance after health, the ability to maintain ourselves in independence and freedom from care. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

939:Payment and reserved copyright are at bottom the ruin of literature. Only he who writes entirely for the sake of what he has to say writes anything worth writing. It is as if there were a curse on money: every writer writes badly as soon as he starts writing for gain. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

940:The memory should be specially taxed in youth, since it is then that it is strongest and most tenacious. But in choosing the things that should be committed to memory the utmost are and forethought must be exercised; as lessons well learnt in youth are never forgotten. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

941:There is nothing to be got in the world anywhere; privation and pain pervade it, and boredom lies in wait at every corner for those who have escaped them. Moreover, wickedness usually reigns, and folly does all the talking. Fate is cruel, and human beings are pathetic. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

942:All happiness is of a negative rather than positive nature, and for this reason cannot give lasting satisfaction and gratification, but rather only ever a release from a pain or lack, which must be followed either by a new pain or by languor, empty yearning and boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

943:One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind. In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

944:It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these that he really and completely understands. To read the thoughts of others is like taking the remains of someone else's meal, like putting on the discarded clothes of a stranger. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

945:Boredom is certainly not an evil to be taken lightly: it will ultimately etch lines of true despair onto a face. It makes beings with as little love for each other as humans nonetheless seek each other with such intensity, and in this way becomes the source of sociability. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

946:(Como seriam eruditos alguns autores se soubessem tudo o que está em seus próprios livros!) Por isso, seu texto costuma ter um sentido tão indeterminado que os leitores quebram em vão a cabeça na tentativa de descobrir o que eles pensam afinal. Eles simplesmente não pensam. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

947:Assim, logo que nosso pensamento encontrou palavras, ele já deixa de ser algo íntimo, algo sério no nível mais profundo. Quando ele começa a existir para os outros, para de viver em nós, da mesma maneira que o filho se separa da mãe quando passa a ter sua existência própria. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

948:There is no vice of which a man can be guilty, no meanness, no shabbiness, no unkindness, which excites so much indignation among his contemporaries, friends and neighbours, as his success. This is the one unpardonable crime, which reason cannot defend, nor humility mitigate. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

949:(...) one man will look another in the face, with the impudent assurance that he will never see anything but a miserable resemblance of himself; and this is just what he will see, as he cannot grasp anything beyond it. Hence the bold way in which one man will contradict another. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

950:Our greatest pleasure consists in being admired; but those who admire us, even if they have every reason to do so, are slow to express their sentiments. Hence he is the happiest man who, no matter how, manages sincerely to admire himself-so long as other people leave him alone.] ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

951:Our greatest pleasure consists in being admired; but those who admire us, even if they have every reason to do so, are slow to express their sentiments. Hence he is the happiest man who, no matter how, manages sincerely to admire himself—so long as other people leave him alone.] ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

952:El fin último de todo asunto amoroso es más importante que todos los demás fines de la vida del hombre; y por lo tanto, es merecedor de la profunda seriedad con que cada uno lo persigue. En efecto, lo que aquí se decide es nada menos que la composición de la siguiente generación. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

953:Since long ago all peoples have recognized that the world, apart from its physical meaning, also has a moral one. Yet everywhere the matter has only come to a vague consciousness, which, as it sought expression, clothed itself in all sorts of images and myths. There are religions. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

954:The art lies in setting the inner life into the most violent motion with the smallest possible expenditure of outer life; for it is the inner life which is the real object of our interest - The task of the novelist is not to narrate great events but to make small ones interesting. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

955:To satisfy themselves with this, they gladly grasp at words, especially those which denote indefinite, very abstract, and unusual concepts difficult to explain, such, for example, as infinite and finite, sensuous and supersensuous, the Idea of being, Ideas of reason, the Absolute, ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

956:Just as the largest library, badly arranged, is not so useful as a very moderate one that is well arranged, so the greatest amount of knowledge, if not elaborated by our own thoughts, is worth much less than a far smaller volume that has been abundantly and repeatedly thought over. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

957:Since everything which exists or happens for a man exists only in his consciousness and happens for it alone, the most essential thing for a man is the constitution of this consciousness, which is in most cases far more important than the circumstances which go to form its contents. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

958:You can apply yourself voluntarily to reading and learning, but you cannot really apply yourself to thinking: thinking have to be kindled, as a fire is by a draught, and kept going by some kind of interest in its object, which may be an objective interest or merely a subjective one. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

959:As my own father was sick, and miserably tied to his invalid's chair, he would have been abandoned had not an old servant performed for him a so-called service of love. My mother gave parties while he was perishing in solitude, and amused herself while he was suffering bitter agonies ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

960:Mas vamos vivendo nossos belos dias, sem percebê-los; só quando chegam os ruins é que os desejamos de volta. Milhares de horas serenas e agradáveis deixamos passar por nós, sem fluí-las e mostrando má vontade, para depois, em tempos sombrios, dirigirmos em vão o nosso anelo para elas. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

961:Again, you may look upon life as an unprofitable episode, disturbing the blessed calm of non-existence. And, in any case, even though things have gone with you tolerably well, the longer you live the more clearly you will feel that, on the whole, life is a disappointment, nay, a cheat. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

962:is obviously high time that the Jewish conception of nature, at any rate in regard to animals, should come to an end in Europe, and that the eternal being which, as it lives in us, also lives in every animal should be recognized as such, and as such treated with care and consideration. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

963:Style is the physiognomy of the mind. It is more infallible than that of the body. To imitate the style of another is said to be wearing a mask. However beautiful it may be, it is through its lifelessness insipid and intolerable, so that even the most ugly living face is more engaging. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

964:There is not much to be got anywhere in the world. It is filled with misery and pain; if a man escapes these, boredeom lies in wait for him at every corner. Nay more; it is evil which generally has the upper hand, and folly that makes the most noise. Fate is cruel and mankind pitiable. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

965:What give all that is tragic, whatever its form, the characteristic of the sublime, is the first inkling of the knowledge that the world and life can give no satisfaction, and are not worth our investment in them. The tragic spirit consists in this. Accordingly it leads to resignation. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

966:Women are directly fitted for acting as the nurses and teachers of our early childhood by the fact that they are themselves childish, frivolous and short-sighted; in a word, they are big children all their life long—a kind of intermediate stage between the child and the full-grown man, ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

967:It would be a great advantage to a young man if his early training could eradicate the idea that the world has a great deal to offer him. But the usual result of education is to strenghten this delusion; and our first ideas of life are generally taken from fiction rather than from fact. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

968:Il mondo è una mia rappresentazione": - questa è una verità che vale in rapporto a ciascun essere vivente e conoscente, sebbene l'uomo soltanto sia capace d'accoglierla nella riflessa, astratta coscienza: e s'egli veramente fa questo, con ciò è penetrata in lui la meditazione filosofica. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

969:Above all the genuine philosopher will generally seek lucidity and clarity and will always strive not to be like a turbid, raging, rain-swollen stream, but much more like a Swiss lake, which, in its peacefulness, combines great depth with a great clarity that just reveals its great depth. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

970:Again, you may look upon life as an unprofitable episode, disturbing the blessed calm of non-existence. And, in any case, even though things have gone with you tolerably well, the longer you live the more clearly you will feel that, on the whole, life is a disappointment, nay, a cheat. If ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

971:Imitation and custom are the spring of almost all human action. The cause of it is that men fight shy of all and any sort of reflection, and very properly mistrust their own discernment. At the same time this remarkably strong imitative instinct in man is a proof of his kinship with apes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

972:On the other hand, I must mention that, by a diligent search in lunatic asylums, I have found individual cases of patients who where unquestionably endowed with great talents, and whose genius distinctly appeared through their madness, which, however, had completely gained the upper hand. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

973:The entire dispute between materialists and spiritualists, which became so heated during 1855-56, is merely proof of the unbelievable vulgarity and shameless ignorance to which the learned profession has sunk as a result of the study of Hegelian nonsense and neglect of Kantian philosophy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

974:No little part of the torment of existence lies in this, that Time is continually pressing upon us, never letting us take breath, but always coming after us, like a taskmaster with a whip. If at any moment Time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the misery of boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

975:The actual life of a thought lasts only until it reaches the point of speech...As soon as our thinking has found words it ceases to be sincere...When it begins to exist in others it ceases to live in us, just as the child severs itself from its mother when it enters into its own existence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

976:A man finds himself, to his great astonishment, suddenly existing, after thousands and thousands of years of non-existence: he lives for a little while; and then, again, comes an equally long period when he must exist no more. The heart rebels against this, and feels that it cannot be true. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

977:Exaggeration in every sense is as essential to newspaper writing as it is to the writing of plays: for the point is to make as much as possible of every occurrence. So that all newspaper writers are, for the sake of their trade, alarmists: this is their way of making themselves interesting. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

978:Phil. Look what you are doing! When you say, I—I—I want to exist you alone do not say this, but everything, absolutely everything, that has only a vestige of consciousness. Consequently this desire of yours is just that which is not individual but which is common to all without distinction. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

979:Wir tappen im Labyrinth unsers Lebenswandels und im Dunkel unserer Forschungen umher: helleAugenblicke erleuchten dabei wie Blitze unsernWeg. We grope about in the labyrinth of our life and in the obscurity of our investigations; bright moments illuminate our path like flashes of lightning. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

980:Em qualquer parte do mundo, não há muito a buscar: a miséria e a dor preenchem-no, e aqueles que lhes escaparam são espreitados em todos os cantos pelo tédio. Além do mais, via de regra, impera no mundo a malvadez, e a insensatez fala mais alto. O destino é cruel e os homens são deploráveis. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

981:It is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude. To make enemies by unnecessary and willful incivility, is just as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire. For politeness is like a counter--an avowedly false coin, with which it is foolish to be stingy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

982:Quando percebemos que o adversário é superior e que acabará por não nos dar razão, então nos tornamos pessoalmente ofensivos, insultuosos, grosseiros. O uso das ofensas pessoais consiste em sair do objeto da discussão e passar ao contendor, atacando, de uma maneira ou de outra, a sua pessoa. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

983:To repeat abstractly, universally, and distinctly in concepts the whole inner nature of the world, and thus to deposit it as a reflected image in permanent concepts always ready for the faculty of reason, this and nothing else is philosophy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer The World as Will and Representation, Vol. I, §68.,

984:The pleasure in this world, it has been said, outweighs the pain; or, at any rate, there is an even balance between the two. If the reader wishes to see shortly whether this statement is true, let him compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is engaged in eating the other. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

985:Ein geistreicher Mensch hat, in gänzlicher Einsamkeit, an seinen eigenen Gedanken und Phantasien vortreffliche Unterhaltung, während von einem Stumpfen die fortwährende Abwechslung von Gesellschaften, Schauspielen, Ausfahrten und Lustbarkeiten, die marternde Langeweile nicht abzuwenden vermag. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

986:No little part of the torment of existence lies in this, that Time is continually pressing upon us, never letting us take breath, but always coming after us, like a taskmaster with a whip. If at any moment Time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the misery of boredom. But ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

987:Whoever heard me assert that the grey cat playing just now in the yard is the same one that did jumps and tricks there five hundred years ago will think whatever he likes of me, but it is a stranger form of madness to imagine that the present-day cat is fundamentally an entirely different one. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

988:La volontà, come cosa in sé, differisce completamente dalla sua manifestazione fenomenica ed è assolutamente indipendente dalle forme di quest’ultima, che essa assimila solo quando si manifesta, e che quindi concernono solo la sua estrinsecazione obiettiva, ma sono estranee alla volontà stessa. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

989:Pantheism is a self-defeating concept, because the concept of a God presupposes a world different from him as an essential correlate. If, on the other hand, the world is supposed to take over his role, then an absolute world without God remains; hence pantheism is only an euphemism for atheism. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

990:Without books the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world, "Lighthouses" as the poet said "erected in the sea of time." They are companions, teachers,magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind, Books are humanity in print. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

991:Without books the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world, "Lighthouses" as the poet said "erected in the sea of time." They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind, Books are humanity in print. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

992:He who lives to see two or three generations is like a man who sits some time in the conjurer's booth at a fair, and witnesses the performance twice or thrice in succession. The tricks were meant to be seen only once; and when they are no longer a novelty and cease to deceive, their effect is gone. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

993:Nothing in life gives a man so much courage as the attainment or renewal of the conviction that other people regard him with favor; because it means that everyone joins to give him help and protection, which is an infinitely stronger bulwark against the ills of life than anything he can do himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

994:For what is our civilised world but a big masquerade? where you meet knights, priests, soldiers, men of learning, barristers, clergymen, philosophers, and I don't know what all! But they are not what they pretend to be; they are only masks, and, as a rule, behind the masks you will find moneymakers. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

995:The inexpressible depth of music, so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, is due to the fact that it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being, but entirely without reality and remote from its pain… Music expresses only the quintessence of life and its events, never these themselves. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

996:The peculiar characteristic of the philistine is a dull, dry kind of gravity, akin to that of animals. Nothing really pleases, or excites, or interests him, for sensual pleasure is quickly exhausted, and the society of philistines soon becomes burdensome, and one may even get tired of playing cards. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

997:When, at the end of their lives, most men look back they will find that they have lived throughout ad interim. They will be surprised to see that the very thing they allowed to slip unnapreciated and unenjoyed by was their life. And so a man, having been duped by hope, dances into the arms of death. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

998:People need external activity because they have no internal activity... [Hence] the restlessness of those who have nothing to do, and their aimless traveling. What drives them from country to country is the same boredom which at home drives them together into such crowds and heaps it is funny to see. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

999:To conceal a want of real ideas, many make for themselves an imposing apparatus of long compound words, intricate flourishes and phrases, new and unheard-of expressions, all of which together furnish an extremely difficult jargon that sounds very learned. Yet with all this they say-precisely nothing. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1000:How very learned many a man would be if he knew everything that was in his own books! The consequence of this is that these writers talk in such a loose and vague manner, that the reader puzzles his brains in vain to understand what it is of which they are really thinking. They are thinking of nothing. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1001:We will gradually become indifferent to what goes on in the minds of other people when we acquire a knowledge of the superficial nature of their thoughts, the narrowness of their views and of the number of their errors. Whoever attaches a lot of value to the opinions of others pays them too much honor. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1002:There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake. ... The truth is that when an author begins to write for the sake of covering paper, he is cheating the reader; because he writes under the pretext that he has something to say. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1003:It then becomes clear and certain to him that he does not know a sun and an earth, but only an eye that sees a sun, a hand that feels an earth; that the world around him is there only as representation, in other words, only in reference to another thing, namely that which represents, and this is himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1004:There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake. [...] The truth is that when an author begins to write for the sake of covering paper, he is cheating the reader; because he writes under the pretext that he has something to say. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1005:Man may have the most excellent judgment in all other matters, and yet go wrong in those which concern himself; because here the will comes in and deranges the intellect at once. Therefore let a man take counsel of a friend. A doctor can cure everyone but himself; if he falls ill, he sends for a colleague. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1006:What keeps all living things busy and in motion is the striving to exist. But when existence is secured, they do not know what to do: that is why the second thing that sets them in motion is a striving to get rid of the burden of existence, not to feel it any longer, 'to kill time', i.e. to escape boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1007:Consciousness makes the individual careful to maintain his own existence; and if this were not so, there would be no surety for the preservation of the species. From all this it is clear that individuality is not a form of perfection, but rather a limitation; and so to be freed from it is not loss but gain. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1008:If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1009:Exaggeration of every kind is as essential to journalism as it is to the dramatic art; for the object of journalism is to make events go as far as possible. Thus it is that all journalists are, in the very nature of their calling, alarmists; and this is their way of giving interest to what they write. Herein ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1010:Of all the intellectual faculties, judgment is the last to mature. A child under the age of fifteen should confine its attention either to subjects like mathematics, in which errors of judgment are impossible, or to subjects in which they are not very dangerous, like languages, natural science, history, etc. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1011:If we turn from contemplating the world as a whole, and, in particular, the generations of men as they live their little hour of mock-existence and then are swept away in rapid succession; if we turn from this, and look at life in its small details, as presented, say, in a comedy, how ridiculous it all seems! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1012:Ist es an und fu? r sich absurd, das Nichtsein fu? r einUbel zu ? halten; da jedes Ubel wie jedes Gut das Dasein zur Voraussetzung hat, ja sogar das Bewusstsein. It is in and by itself absurd to regard non-existence as an evil; for every evil, like every good, presupposes existence, indeed even consciousness. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1013:Just as a stream flows smoothly on as long as it encounters no obstruction, so the nature of man and animal is such that we never really notice or become conscious of what is agreeable to our will; if we are to notice something, our will has to have been thwarted, has to have experienced a shock of some kind. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1014:Human life must be some kind of mistake. The truth of this will be sufficiently obvious if we only remember that man is a compound of needs and necessities hard to satisfy; and that even when they are satisfied, all he obtains is a state of painlessness, where nothing remains to him but abandonment to boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1015:I cannot here withhold the statement that optimism, where it is not merely the thoughtless talk of those who harbor nothing but words under their shallow foreheads, seems to me to be not merely an absurd, but also a really wicked, way of thinking, a bitter mockery of the most unspeakable sufferings of mankind. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1016:We learn by experience that happiness and pleasure are a fata morgana, which, visible from afar, vanish as we approach; that, on the other hand, suffering and pain are a reality, which makes its presence felt without any intermediary, and for its effect, stands in no need of illusion or the play of false hope. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1017:Do mesmo modo como nosso corpo é coberto por roupas, nosso espírito é coberto por mentiras. Nosso discurso, nossa acção, todo o nosso ser é mentiroso: e somente olhando através desse invólucro é possível, vez por outra, descobrir os nossos sentimentos, assim como através das roupas se descobre a forma do corpo. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1018:... life may be compared to a piece of embroidery, of which, during the first half of his time, a man gets a sight of the right side, and during the second half, of the wrong. The wrong side is not so pretty as the right, but it is more instructive; it shows the way in which the threads have been worked together ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1019:No little part of the torment of existence lies in this, that time is continually pressing upon us, never letting us take breath, but always coming after us, like a taskmaster with a whip. If at any moment time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the misery of boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, Studies in Pessimism,

1020:En büyük bilgelik şu andan zevk almayı hayatın en büyük amacı kılmaktır, çünkü tek gerçek budur, başka her şey düşünce oyunudur. Ama bunun en büyük budalalığımız olduğunu da söyleyebiliriz, çünkü yalnızca kısa bir süre için var olan ve bir rüya gibi kaybolan içinde bulunduğumuz bu an asla ciddi bir çabaya değmez. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1021:He who truly thinks for himself is like a monarch, in that he recognizes no one over him. His judgements, like the decisions of a monarch, arise directly from his own absolute power. He no more accepts authorities than a monarch does orders, and he acknowledges the validity of nothing he has not himself confirmed. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1022:All geniuses are peculiarly inclined to solitude, to which they are driven as much by their difference from others as the inner wealth with which they are quipped, since among humans, among diamonds, only the uncommonly great are suited as solitaires: the ordinary ones must be set in clusters to produce any effect. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1023:Die, welche schwierige, dunkle, verflochtene, zweideutige Reden zusammensetzen, wissen ganz gewiss nicht recht, was sie sagen wollen, sondern haben nur ein dumpfes, nach einem Gedanken erst ringendes Bewusstsein davon; oft aber wollen sie sich selber und anderen verbergen, dass sie eigentlich nichts zu sagen haben. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1024:it seems to me that the idea of dignity can be applied only in an ironical sense to a being whose will is so sinful, whose intellect is so limited, whose body is so weak and perishable as man's. How shall a man be proud, when his conception is a crime, his birth a penalty, his life a labour, and death a necessity!— ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1025:The bad thing about all religions is that, instead of being able to confess their allegorical nature, they have to conceal it; accordingly, they parade their doctrines in all seriousness as true sensu proprio, and as absurdities form an essential part of these doctrines we have the great mischief of a continual fraud. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1026:A library may be very large; but if it is in disorder, it is not so useful as one that is small but well arranged. In the same way, a man may have a great mass of knowledge, but if he has not worked it up by thinking it over for himself, it has much less value than a far smaller amount which he has thoroughly pondered. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1027:Mere subtlety may qualify you as a sceptic but not as a philosopher. On the other hand, scepticism is in philosophy what the Opposition is in Parliament; it is just as beneficial, and indeed necessary. It rests everywhere on the fact that philosophy is not capable of producing the kind of evidence mathematics produces. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1028:For an act to be moral the intention must be based on compassion, not duty. We do something because we want to do it, because we feel we have to do it, not because we ought to do it. And even if our efforts fail - or we never even get to implement them - we are still moral because our motivation was based on compassion. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1029:Alla intuitionb is intellectual. For without the understanding it would never come to intuition, to perceptionc, apprehensiond of objects; rather, it would remain as mere sensation,e which at most could have significance with regard to the will as pain or comfort, but would otherwise be a change of meaningless states and ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1030:There are two things which make it impossible to believe that this world is the successful work of an all-wise, all-good, and at the same time, all-powerful being; firstly, the misery which abounds in it everywhere; and secondly, the obvious imperfection of its highest product, man, who is a burlesque of what he should be. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1031:Animals learn death first at the moment of death;...man approaches death with the knowledge it is closer every hour, and this creates a feeling of uncertainty over his life, even for him who forgets in the business of life that annihilation is awaiting him. It is for this reason chiefly that we have philosophy and religion. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1032:In fact, the balance wheel which maintains in motion the watch of metaphysics that never runs down, is the clear knowledge that this world's non-existence is just as possible as its existence." ―from The World as Will and Representation . Translated from the German by E. F. J. Payne. In Two Volumes, Volume II, p. 171 ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1033:There are two things which make it impossible to believe that this world is the successful work of an all-wise, all-good, and, at the same time, all-powerful Being; firstly, the misery which abounds in it everywhere; and secondly, the obvious imperfection of its highest product, man, who is a burlesque of what he should be. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1034:Far-sighted, rational deliberation usually comes out in favour of one decision, while immediate inclination comes out for the other. As long as we have to be passive, the balance seems tilted in favour of reason; but we can see in advance how strongly we will be pulled by the other side when the opportunity for acting arises. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1035:What light is to the outer physical world intellect is to the inner world of consciousness. For intellect is related to the will, and thus also to the organism which is nothing other than will regarded objectively, in the approximate same way as light is to a combustible body and the oxygen in combination with which it ignites. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1036:That woman is by nature intended to obey is shown by the fact that every woman who is placed in the unnatural position of absolute independence at once attaches herself to some kind of man, by whom she is controlled and governed; this is because she requires a master. If she, is young, the man is a lover; if she is old, a priest. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1037:To form a judgment intuitively is the privilege of few; authority and example lead the rest of the world. They see with the eyes of others, they hear with the ears of others. Therefore it is very easy to think as all the world now think; but to think as all the world will think thirty years hence is not in the power of every one. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1038:But he will fear least to become nothing in death who has recognized that he is already nothing now, and who consequently no longer takes any share in his individual phenomenon, because in him knowledge has, as it were, burnt up and consumed the will, so that no will, thus no desire for individual existence, remains in him any more. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1039:For we find even the excellent Descartes, who gave the first impulse to subjective reflection and thereby became the father of modern philosophy, still entangled in confusions for which it is difficult to account ; and we shall soon see to what serious and deplorable consequences these confusions have led with regard to Metaphysics. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1040:Two Chinamen visiting Europe went to the theatre for the first time. One of them occupied himself with trying to understand the theatrical machinery, which he succeeded in doing. The other, despite his ignorance of the language, sought to unravel the meaning of the play. The former is like the astronomer, the latter the philosopher. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1041:Our civilized world is nothing but a great masquerade. You encounter knights, parsons, soldiers, doctors, lawyers, priests, philosophers and a thousand more: but they are not what they appear - they are merely masks... Usually, as I say, there is nothing but industrialists, businessmen and speculators concealed behind all these masks. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1042:Think what you're doing! When you say I, I, I want to exist, it is not you alone that says this. Everything says it, absolutely everything that has the faintest trace of consciousness. It follows, then, that this desire of yours is just the part of you that is not individual - the part that is common to all things without distinction. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1043:A last trick is to become personal, insulting and rude as soon as you perceive that your opponent has the upper hand. In becoming personal you leave the subject altogether, and turn your attack on the person by remarks of an offensive and spiteful character. This is a very popular trick, because everyone is able to carry it into effect. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1044:Monotheistic religions alone furnish the spectacle of religious wars, religious persecutions, heretical tribunals, that breaking of idols and destruction of images of the gods, that razing of Indian temples and Egyptian colossi, which had looked on the sun 3,000 years: just because a jealous god had said, Thou shalt make no graven image. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1045:Natura se amuza citeodata formind combinatii caraghioase. Sint unii care-ntr-una casca ochii la nimicuri si rid ca papagalii in fata unui simplu cintaret din cimpoi; iar altii au o infatisare asa de posomorita, incit nici macar n-ar suride auzind o gluma buna. Nu s-a spus adesea ca, in fond, spiritul cel mai limitat este cel mai fericit? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1046:Perhaps he was recalling the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, who wrote in the nineteenth century: “When we are ascending the hill of life, death is not visible: it lies down at the bottom of the other side. But once we have crossed the top of the hill, death comes in view—death, which, until then, was known to us only by hearsay.”) ~ Pamela Druckerman,

1047:(Perhaps he was recalling the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, who wrote in the nineteenth century: “When we are ascending the hill of life, death is not visible: it lies down at the bottom of the other side. But once we have crossed the top of the hill, death comes in view—death, which, until then, was known to us only by hearsay.”) ~ Pamela Druckerman,

1048:That woman is by nature meant to obey may be seen by the fact that every woman who is placed in the unnatural position of complete independence; immediately attaches herself to some man, by whom she allows herself to be guided and ruled. It is because she needs a lord and master. If she is young, it will be a lover; if she is old, a priest ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1049:That woman is by nature meant to obey may be seen by the fact that every woman who is placed in the unnatural position of complete independence; immediately attaches herself to some man, by whom she allows herself to be guided and ruled. It is because she needs a lord and master. If she is young, it will be a lover; if she is old, a priest. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1050:The paltry character of most men compels the few who have any merit or genius to behave as though they did not know their own value, and consequently did not know other people's want of value; for it is only on this condition that the mob acquiesces in tolerating merit. A virtue has been made out of this necessity, and it is called modesty. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1051:Bütün budalaların başına gelen en büyük belafikirlerle ilgilenmemeleridir,ve cansıkıntısından kurtulmak için sürekli olarak gerçekliklere ihtiyaç duymalarıdır.Fakat gerçeklikler ya tatmin edicilikten uzak ya da tehlikelerle doludur; üstelik ilginç olmaktan çıktıklarında yorucu hale gelirler.Fakat düşünce dünyası sınırsız,zararsız ve sakindir. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1052:Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control. For we cannot alter our heart; its basis is determined by motives; and our head deals with objective facts, and applies to them rules which are immutable. Any given individual is the union of a particular heart with a particular head. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1053:At the age of five years to enter a spinning-cotton or other factory, and from that time forth to sit there daily, first ten, then twelve, and ultimately fourteen hours, performing the same mechanical labour, is to purchase dearly the satisfaction of drawing breath. But this is the fate of millions, and that of millions more is analogous to it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1054:If you try to imagine as nearly as you can what an amount of misery, pain, and suffering of every kind the sun shines upon in its course, you will admit that it would be much better if on the earth as little as on the moon the sun were able to call forth the phenomena of life; and if, here as there, the surface were still in a crystalline state". ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1055:The presence of a thought is like the presence of our beloved. We imagine we shall never forget this thought, and that this loved one could never be indifferent to us. But out of sight out of mind! The finest thought runs the risk of being irrevocably forgotten if it is not written down, and the dear one of being forsaken if we do not marry her. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1056:Very often inertia, selfishness, and vanity play the greatest role in our trust in others; inertia when we prefer to trust somebody else, in order not to investigate, be vigilant, or act ourselves; selfishness when the desire to speak about our own affairs tempts us to confide in someone else; vanity when it concers something that we are proud of. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1057:All pantheism must ultimately be shipwrecked on the inescapable demands of ethics, and then on the evil and suffering of the world. If the world is a theophany , then everything done by man, and even by animal, is equally divine and excellent; nothing can be more censurable and nothing more praiseworthy than anything else; hence there is no ethics. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1058:always remember that we are in Germany where we have been able to do what would have been possible nowhere else: namely to proclaim as a great mind and profound thinker a mindless, ignorant, nonsense-spreading philosophaster who, through unprecedented, hollow verbiage, thoroughly and permanently disorganizes their brains. I mean our dear Hegel. And ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1059:They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice; that only a madman could be guilty of it; and other insipidities of the same kind; or else they make the nonsensical remark that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1060:Viceversa ogni causalità, perciò ogni materia, e quindi l'intera realtà esiste soltanto per l'intelletto, mediante l'intelletto, nell'intelletto. La prima, più semplice, sempre presente manifestazione dell'intelletto è l'intuizione del mondo reale: questa non è altro se non conoscenza della causa dall'effetto: perciò ogni intuizione è intellettuale ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1061:(...) as pessoas comuns têm profundo respeito ante os especialistas de todo o género. Ignoram que quem faz de um assunto a sua profissão não ama o assunto em si, e sim o lucro que ele lhe dá; e que aquele que ensina um assunto raras vezes o conhece a fundo, porque para aquele que o estuda a fundo não resta, em geral, tempo para dedicar-se ao ensino. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1062:[A]t bottom it is the same with traveling as with reading. How often do we complain that we cannot remember one thousandth part of what we read! In both cases, however, we may console ourselves with the reflection that the things we see and read make an impression on the mind before they are forgotten, and so contribute to its formation and nurture… ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1063:Arthur Schopenhauer argued that the intellect doesn’t rule the will. According to him, “the intellect gets to know the conclusions of the will only a posteriori and empirically.”53 Indeed, the operation of the will is a “secret workshop” into which the intellect cannot penetrate.54 The intellect, he concludes, is a “mere tool in the service of the will. ~ William B Irvine,

1064:Mancarea buna, vinurile alese – iata scopul suprem al existentei; sa-si procure tot ce contribuie la binele sau material este tinta vietii sale. Seriozitatea rece, lipsita de sens este proprie filistinului si-l caracterizeaza. Odata sfarsite placerile materiale, societatea filistinilor devine curand plictisitoare. Pana si jocul de carti devine monoton. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1065:Never combat any man's opinion; for though you reached the age of Methuselah, you would never have done setting him right upon all the absurd things that he believes. It is also well to avoid correcting people's mistakes in conversation, however good your intentions may be; for it is easy to offend people, and difficult, if not impossible to mend them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1066:Under presupposition of free will each human action would be an inexplicable miracle - an effect without cause. And if one dares the attempt to make such a liberum arbitrium indifferentiae imaginable to oneself, one will soon become aware that here the understanding quite genuinely comes to a standstill: it has no form for thinking of such a thing. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1067:The cause of laughter in every case is simply the sudden perception of the incongruity between a concept and the real objects which have been thought through it in some relation, and laughter itself is just the expression of this incongruity.... All laughter then is occasioned by a paradox.... This, briefly stated, is the true explanation of the ludicrous. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1068:If people insist that honor is dearer than life itself, what they really mean is that existence and well-being are as nothing compared with other people's opinions. Of course, this may be only an exaggerated way of stating the prosaic truth that reputation, that is, the opinion others have of us, is indispensable if we are to make any progress in the world. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1069:I have been pursuing my own train of thought for more than thirty years, undisturbed by all this, just because it is what I must do, and I could not do otherwise, out of an instinctive drive which is nonetheless supported by the confidence that what is thought truly and what throws light on obscurity will be grasped at some point by another thinking mind.XX ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1070:Every new born being indeed comes fresh and blithe into the new existence, and enjoys it as a free gift: but there is, and can be, nothing freely given. It's fresh existence is paid for by the old age and death of a worn out existence which has perished, but which contained the indestructible seed out of which the new existence has arisen: they are one being. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1071:Los libros malos son un veneno intelectual que destruye el espíritu. Y porque la mayoría de las personas, en lugar de leer lo mejor que se ha producido en las diferentes épocas, se reduce a leer las últimas novedades, los escritores se reducen al círculo estrecho de las ideas en circulación, y el público se hunde cada vez más profundamente en su propio fango. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1072:That the outer man is a picture of the inner, and the face an expression and revelation of the whole character, is a presumption likely enough in itself, and therefore a safe one to go on; borne out as it is by the fact that people are always anxious to see anyone who has made himself famous. Photography offers the most complete satisfaction of our curiosity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1073:You need only look at the way in which she is formed, to see that woman is not meant to undergo great labor, whether of the mind or of the body. She pays the debt of life not by what she does, but by what she suffers; by the pains of child-bearing and care for the child, and by submission to her husband, to whom she should be a patient and cheering companion. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1074:Byron, in “Don Juan”, face o satira amara la adresa femeilor care transforma dragostea intr-o “afacere de cap” uitind ca au “inima”. Capul vine dupa inima, caci nu el este centrul corpului, ci o dezvoltare a lui. Cind moare un erou i se imbalsameaza inima, in timp ce filozofii si poetii au parte, dupa moarte, de cercetarea amanuntita a craniului si creierului. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1075:Virtue is as little taught as is genius; indeed, the concept is just as unfruitful for it as it is for art, and in the case of both can be used only as an instrument. We should therefore be just as foolish to expect that our moral systems and ethics would create virtuous, noble, and holy men, as that our aesthetics would produce poets, painters, and musicians. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1076:What a man can do and suffer is unknown to himself till some occasion presents itself which draws out the hidden power. Just as one sees not in the water of an unruffled pond the fury and roar with which it can dash down a steep rock without injury to itself, or how high it is capable of rising; or as little as one can suspect the latent heat in ice-cold water. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1077:It is just as little necessary for the saint to be a philosopher as for the philosopher to be a saint; just as it is not necessary for a perfectly beautiful person to be a great sculptor, or for a sculptor to be himself a beautiful person. In general it is a strange demand on a moralist that he should commend no other virtue than that which he himself possesses. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1078:As the strata of the earth preserve in succession the living creatures of past epochs, so the shelves of libraries preserve in succession the errors of the past and their expositions, which like the former were very lively and made a great commotion in their own age but now stand petrified and stiff in a place where only the literary palaeontologist regards them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1079:The greatest wisdom consists in enjoying the present and making this enjoyment the goal of life, because the present is all that is real and everything else merely imaginary. But you could just as well call this mode of life the greatest folly: for that which in a moment ceases to exist, which vanishes as completely as a dream, cannot be worth any serious effort. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1080:Virtue is as little to be acquired by learning as genius; nay, the idea is barren, and is only to be employed as an instrument, in the same way as genius in respect to art. It would be as foolish to expect that our moral and ethical systems would turn out virtuous, noble, and holy beings, as that our aesthetic systems would produce poets, painters, and musicians. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1081:Truth that has been merely learned is like an artificial limb, a false tooth, a waxen nose; at best, like a nose made out of another’s flesh; it adheres to us only because it is put on. But truth acquired by thinking of our own is like a natural limb; it alone really belongs to us. This is the fundamental difference between the thinker and the mere man of learning. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1082:In this respect ‘Ἡγεμονιχόν would be a fitting title for the will; yet again this title seems to apply to the intellect, in so far as that is the guide and leader, like the footman who walks in front of the stranger. In truth, however, the most striking figure for the relation of the two is that of the strong blind man carrying the sighted lame man on his shoulders. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1083:The greatest wisdom is to make the enjoyment of the present the supreme object of life; because that is the only reality, all else being merely the play of thought. On the other hand, such a course might just as well be called the greatest folly: for that which in the next moment exists no more, and vanishes utterly, like a dream, can never be worth a serious effort. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1084:Uma hipótese leva, na cabeça em que se estabeleceu ou mesmo na cabeça em que nasceu, uma vida comparável à de um organismo, já que assimila do mundo exterior apenas o que lhe é proveitoso e homogêneo. Quanto ao que é heterogêneo e prejudicial, ou ela não deixa que chegue perto, ou então, quando se trata de algo que é inevitável assimilar, expele-o novamente, intacto. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1085:A constant flow of thoughts expressed by other people can stop and deaden your own thought and your own initiative…. That is why constant learning softens your brain…. Stopping the creation of your own thoughts to give room for the thoughts from other books reminds me of Shakespeare’s remark about his contemporaries who sold their land in order to see other countries. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1086:You should read only when your own thoughts dry up, which will of course happen frequently enough even to the best heads; but to banish your own thoughts so as to take up a book is a sin against the holy ghost; it is like deserting untrammeled nature to look at a herbarium or engravings of landscapes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, “On Thinking for Oneself,” Parerga und Paralipomena, Vol. 2, § 260,

1087:Astrology furnishes a splendid proof of the contemptible subjectivity of men in consequence whereof they refer everything to themselves and from every idea at once go straight back to themselves. Astrology refers the course of celestial bodies to the miserable ego; it also establishes a connection between the comets in heaven and the squabbles and rascalities on earth. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1088:If the world were a paradise of luxury and ease, a land flowing with milk and honey, where every Jack obtained his Jill at once and without any difficulty, men would either die of boredom or hang themselves; or there would be wars, massacres, and murders; so that in the end mankind would inflict more suffering on itself than it has now to accept at the hands of Nature. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1089:Astrology provides a brilliant proof of the miserable subjectivity of human beings, as a result of which they relate everything to themselves and go from every thought in a straight line immediately back to themselves. It relates the course of the great celestial bodies to the pathetic I, as it also connects the comets in the sky with earthly quarrels and shabby tricks. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1090:God, who in the beginning was the creator, appears in the end as revenger and rewarder. Deference to such a God admittedly can produce virtuous actions; however, because fear of punishment or hope for reward are their motive, these actions will not be purely moral; on the contrary, the inner essence of such virtue will amount to prudent and carefully calculating egoism. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1091:It is easy to understand that in the dreary middle ages the Aristotelian logic would be very acceptable to the controversial spirit of the schoolmen, which, in the absence of all real knowledge, spent its energy upon mere formulas and words, and that it would be eagerly adopted even in its mutilated Arabian form, and presently established as the centre of all knowledge. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1092:Do not shorten the morning by getting up late, or waste it in unworthy occupations or in talk; look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to a certain extent sacred. Evening is like old age: we are languid, talkative, silly. Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1093:No child under the age of fifteen should receive instruction in subjects which may possibly be the vehicle of serious error, such as philosophy, religion, or any other branch of knowledge where it is necessary to take large views; because wrong notions imbibed early can seldom be rooted out, and of all the intellectual faculties, judgment is the last to arrive at maturity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1094:Students and scholars of all kinds and of every age aim, as a rule, only at information, not insight. They make it a point of honour to have information about everything, every stone, plant, battle, or experiment and about all books, collectively and individually. It never occurs to them that information is merely a means to insight, but in itself is of little or no value. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1095:Suicide may also be regarded as an experiment - a question which man puts to Nature, trying to force her to answer. The question is this: What change will death produce in a man's existence and in his insight into the nature of things? It is a clumsy experiment to make; for it involves the destruction of the very consciousness which puts the question and awaits the answer. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1096:This is in the highest degree the case with many of Goethe's and Byron's poems, which are obviously founded upon actual facts; where it is open to a foolish reader to envy the poet because so many delightful things happened to him, instead of envying that mighty power of phantasy which was capable of turning a fairly common experience into something so great and beautiful. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1097:the ancient wisdom of the Indian philosophers declares, “It is Mâyâ, the veil of deception, which blinds the eyes of mortals, and makes them behold a world of which they cannot say either that it is or that it is not: for it is like a dream; it is like the sunshine on the sand which the traveller takes from afar for water, or the stray piece of rope he mistakes for a snake. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1098:El hecho de que, detrás de la angustia, se encuentre de inmediato el aburrimiento, que afecta hasta a los animales más inteligentes, es consecuencia de que la vida no tiene ningún contenido verdadero y auténtico, sino que solo se mantiene en movimiento por necesidad e ilusión: y tan pronto como el movimiento se detiene, aparece toda la esterilidad y el vacío de la existencia. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1099:Thus the will to live everywhere preys upon itself, and in different forms is its own nourishment, till finally the human race, because it subdues all the others, regards nature as a manufactory for its own use. Yet even the human race...reveals in itself with most terrible distinctness this conflict, this variance of the will with itself; and we find homo homini lupus. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1100:[Descartes] And so it was he who discovered the gulf between the subjective or ideal and the objective or real. He clothed this insight in the form of a doubt concerning the existence of the external world; but by his inadequate solution of such doubt, namely that God Almighty would surely not deceive us, he has shown how profound the problem is and how difficult it is to solve. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1101:I observed once to Goethe that when a friend is with us we do not think the same of him as when he is away. He replied, "Yes! because the absent friend is yourself, and he exists only in your head; whereas the friend who is present has an individuality of his own, and moves according to laws of his own, which cannot always be in accordance with those which you form for yourself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1102:It is just this characteristic way in which the brute gives itself up entirely to the present moment that contributes so much to the delight we take in our domestic pets. They are the present moment personified, and in some respects they make us feel the value of every hour that is free from trouble and annoyance, which we, with our thoughts and preoccupations, mostly disregard. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1103:To free a man from error is not to deprive him of anything but to give him something: for the knowledge that a thing is false is a piece of truth. No error is harmless: sooner or later it will bring misfortune to him who harbours it. Therefore deceive no one, but rather confess ignorance of what you do not know, and leave each man to devise his own articles of faith for himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1104:If you come across any special trait of meanness or stupidity … you must be careful not to let it annoy or distress you, but to look upon it merely as an addition to your knowledge—a new fact to be considered in studying the character of humanity. Your attitude towards it will be that of the mineralogist who stumbles upon a very characteristic specimen of a mineral. —Arthur Schopenhauer ~ Robert Greene,

1105:The composer reveals the innermost nature of the world, and expresses the profoundest wisdom in a language that his reasoning faculty does not understand, just as a magnetic somnambulist gives information about things of which she has no conception when she is awake. Therefore in the composer, more than in any other artist, the man is entirely separate and distinct from the artist. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1106:The little incidents and accidents of every day fill us with emotion, anxiety, annoyance, passion, as long as they are close to us, when they appear so big, so important, so serious; but as soon as they are borne down the restless stream of time they lose what significance they had; we think no more of them and soon forget them altogether. They were big only because they were near. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1107:El cristianismo es la doctrina que afirma que el hombre es profundamente culpable sólo por el hecho de nacer, y al mismo tiempo enseña que el corazón debe aspirar a desligarse del mundo, lo cual no se puede conseguir sino a costa de los más penosos sacrificios, por la dejación voluntaria, por el anonadamiento de sí mismo, es decir, por una total transformación de la naturaleza humana. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1108:If you come across any special trait of meanness or stupidity . . . you must be careful not to let it annoy or distress you, but to look upon it merely as an addition to your knowledge—a new fact to be considered in studying the character of humanity. Your attitude towards it will be that of the mineralogist who stumbles upon a very characteristic specimen of a mineral. —Arthur Schopenhauer ~ Robert Greene,

1109:In accordance with such zeal, by reducing the external world to a matter of faith, he wanted merely to open a little door for faith in general, and to prepare the credit for that which was afterwards actually to be offered on credit; just as if, to introduce paper money, we tried to appeal to the fact that the value of the ringing coin depended merely on the stamp the State put on it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1110:In order to increase his pleasures, man has intentionally added to the number and pressure of his needs, which in their original state were not much more difficult to satisfy than those of the brute. Hence luxury in all its forms; delicate food, the use of tobacco and opium, spirituous liquors, fine clothes, and the thousand and one things that he considers necessary to his existence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1111:If this world were populated with really thinking beings, it would be impossible for all kinds of noise to be permitted and given such unlimited scope, even the most terrible and purposeless. But if nature had intended man for thinking, she would not have given him ears, or at any rate would have furnished them with air-tight flaps, as with bats whom for this reason I envy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1112:The real meaning of persona is a mask, such as actors were accustomed to wear on the ancient stage; and it is quite true that no one shows himself as he is, but wears his mask and plays his part. Indeed, the whole of our social arrangements may be likened to a perpetual comedy; and this is why a man who is worth anything finds society so insipid, while a blockhead is quite at home in it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1113:The use of the word person in every European language to signify a human individual is unintentionally appropriate; persona really means a player’s mask, and it is quite certain that no one shows himself as he is, but that each wears a mask and plays a role. In general, the whole of social life is a continual comedy, which the worthy find insipid, whilst the stupid delight in it greatly. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1114:the origin of wickedness is the cliff upon which theism, just as much as pantheism, is wrecked; for both imply optimism. However, evil and sin, both in their terrible magnitude, cannot be disavowed; indeed, because of the promised punishments for the latter, the former is only further increased. Whence all this, in a world that is either itself a God or the well-intentioned work of a God? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1115:Therefore if egoism has a firm hold of a man and masters him, whether it be in the form of joy, or triumph, or lust, or hope, or frantic grief, or annoyance, or anger, or fear, or suspicion, or passion of any kind—he is in the devil's clutches and how he got into them does not matter. What is needful is that he should make haste to get out of them; and here, again, it does not matter how. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1116:Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes; this is partly because it gets unobstructed hold of the hearer’s mind without his being distracted by secondary thoughts, and partly because he feels that here he is not being corrupted or deceived by the arts of rhetoric, but that the whole effect is got from the thing itself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1117:I was gripped by the misery of life as Buddha was in his youth when he saw sickness, old age, pain and death. The truth … was that this world could not have been the work of an all-loving Being, but rather that of a devil, who had brought creatures into existence in order to delight in the sight of their sufferings; to this the data pointed, and the belief that it is so won the upper hand. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1118:The best consolation in misfortune or affliction of any kind will be the thought of other people who are in a still worse plight than yourself; and this is a form of consolation open to every one. But what an awful fate this means for mankind as a whole! We are like lambs in a field, disporting themselves under the eye of the butcher, who chooses out first one and then another for his prey. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1119:Aqueles demónios com aspecto humano, os escravocratas e comerciantes de escravos nos estados livres da América do Norte (que deveriam ser chamados de estados escravistas), são, em regra, anglicanos ortodoxos e devotos, que considerariam um grave pecado trabalhar aos domingos e que, contando com a sua obediência e com a sua ida assídua à igreja, entre outras coisas, esperam a salvação eterna. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1120:Exaggeration of every kind is as essential to journalism as it is to the dramatic art; for the object of journalism is to make events go as far as possible. Thus it is that all journalists are, in the very nature of their calling, alarmists; and this is their way of giving interest to what they write. Herein they are like little dogs; if anything stirs, they immediately set up a shrill bark. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1121:All striving comes from lack, from a dissatisfaction with one's condition, and is thus suffering as long as it is not satisfied; but no satisfaction is lasting; instead, it is only the beginning of a new striving. We see striving everywhere inhibited in many ways, struggling everywhere; and thus always suffering; there is no final goal of striving, and therefore no bounds or end to suffering. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1122:How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1123:I was gripped by the misery of life as Buddha was in his youth when he saw sickness, old age, pain and death. The truth . . . was that this world could not have been the work of an all-loving Being, but rather that of a devil, who had brought creatures into existence in order to delight in the sight of their sufferings; to this the data pointed, and the belief that it is so won the upper hand. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1124:Priviţi seriozitatea, subconştienţa cu care se studiază la prima întrevedere un bărbat şi o femeie: se scrutează reciproc, se observă în amănunt începând cu faţa şi terminând cu ceea ce e ascuns privirii. Acest examen nu este decât meditaţia speciei asupra copilului pe care acest cuplu ar putea să-l creeze. Rezultatul acestei meditaţii va decide gradul lor de apropiere şi dorinţele lor reciproce. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1125:Boundless compassion for all living beings is the surest and most certain guarantee of pure moral conduct, and needs no casuistry. Whoever is filled with it will assuredly injure no one, do harm to no one, encroach on no man's rights; he will rather have regard for every one, forgive every one, help every one as far as he can, and all his actions will bear the stamp of justice and loving-kindness. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1126:O espírito íntimo e o sentido da vida verdadeira e pura do claustro e do ascetismo em geral, é sentirmo-nos dignos e capazes de uma existência melhor do que a nossa, e querermos fortificar e manter esta convicção pelo desprezo de todos os vãos gozos deste mundo. Espera-se com segurança e calma o fim desta vida, livre das ilusões enganadoras, para saudar um dia a hora da morte como a da libertação. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1127:En la vida pasa como con el ajedrez: en ambos trazamos, ciertamente, un plan, pero este queda total y completamente subordinado por aquello que, en el ajedrez, se le antoja hacer a nuestro adversario y, en la vida, al destino. La mayoría de las veces, las modificaciones resultantes son tan significativas que nuestro plan, cuando llega a realizarse, apenas queda reconocible en algunos rasgos básicos. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1128:Optimism is not only a false but also a pernicious doctrine, for it presents life as a desirable state and man's happiness as its aim and object. Starting from this, everyone then believes he has the most legitimate claim to happiness and enjoyment. If, as usually happens, these do not fall to his lot, he believes that he suffers an injustice, in fact that he misses the whole point of his existence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1129:If at times I have thought myself unfortunate, it is because of a confusion, an error. I have mistaken myself for someone else... Who am I really? I am the author of The World as Will and Representation, I am the one who has given an answer to the mystery of Being that will occupy the thinkers of future centuries. That is what I am, and who can dispute it in the years of life that still remain for me? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1130:Instead of developing the child's own faculties of discernment, and teaching it to judge and think for itself, the teacher uses all his energies to stuff its head full of the ready-made thoughts of other people. The mistaken views of life, which spring from a false application of general ideas, have afterwards to be corrected by long years of experience; and it is seldom that they are wholly corrected. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1131:The real meaning of persona is a mask, such as actors were accustomed to wear on the ancient stage; and it is quite true that no one shows himself as he is, but wears his mask and plays his part. Indeed, the whole of our social arrangements may be likened to a perpetual comedy; and this is why a man who is worth anything finds society so insipid, while a blockhead is quite at home in it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays Vol 4,

1132:Pride is an established conviction of one’s own paramount worth in some particular respect, while vanity is the desire of rousing such a conviction in others, and it is generally accompanied by the secret hope of ultimately coming to the same conviction oneself. Pride works from within; it is the direct appreciation of oneself. Vanity is the desire to arrive at this appreciation indirectly, from without. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1133:(...) a língua é, para o espírito de uma nação, o que o estilo é para o espírito de um indivíduo. Mas o domínio perfeito de uma língua só ocorre quando uma pessoa é capaz de traduzir não os livros, por exemplo, mas a si própria; desse modo, sem sofrer nenhuma perda de sua individualidade, ela consegue se comunicar imediatamente na outra língua, agradando tanto aos estrangeiros quanto aos falantes nativos. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1134:Every ought simply has no sense and meaning except in relation to threatened punishment or promised reward … . Thus every ought is necessarily conditioned through punishment or reward, hence, to put it in Kant’s terms, essentially and inevitably hypothetical [with if-clause] and never, as he maintains categorical [without if-clause] … Therefore an absolute ought is simply a contradictio in adjecto. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1135:In order to have original, uncommon, and perhaps even immortal thoughts, it is enough to estrange oneself so fully from the world of things for a few moments, that the most ordinary objects and events appear quite new and unfamiliar. In this way their true nature is disclosed. What is here demanded cannot, perhaps, be said to be difficult; it is not in our power at all, but is just the province of genius. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1136:Entretanto os eruditos, em sua maioria, estudam exclusivamente com o objetivo de um dia poderem ensinar e escrever. Assim, sua cabeça é semelhante a um estômago e a um intestino dos quais a comida sai sem ser digerida. Justamente por isso, seu ensino e seus escritos têm pouca utilidade. Não é possível alimentar os outros com restos não digeridos, mas só com o leite que se formou a partir do próprio sangue. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1137:8716Fakat okurken zihnimiz aslında başka birisinin düşüncelerinin oyun alanından başka birşey değildir,ve sonunda onlar bizden ayrılır,geriye kalan nedir?Ve dolayısıyla öyle olur ki çok fazla-yani neredeyse bütün gün okuyan ve arada düşünmeksizin,eğlence yahut meşgaleyle kendini eğlendiren kimse,yavaş yavaş kendi düşünme yeteneğini kaybeder,tıpkı at üstünden inmeyen bir adamın sonunda yürümeyi unutması gibi. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1138:Si en los pequeños asuntos cotidianos, las pequeñeces de la vida... un hombre es desconsiderado y sólo busca aquello que le resulte ventajoso o conveniente, sin importarle los derechos de los demás; si se apropia de lo que pertenece a todos por igual, puede usted estar seguro de que no hay justicia en su corazón y de que sería un villano de talla mayor si no fuese porque la ley y la fuerza le atan las manos. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1139:Yohannes D. Asega > My Quotes (showing 1-1 of 1) sort by ↑ top up up position down down ↓ bottom Remove this quote from your collectionArthur Schopenhauer “We, the salt of the earth, should endeavor to follow, by never letting anything disturb us in the pursuit of our intellectual life, however much the storm of the world may invade and agitate our personal environment. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1140:Health outweighs all other blessings so much that one may really say that a healthy beggar is happier than an ailing king. A quiet and cheerful temperament, happy in the enjoyment of a perfectly sound physique, an intellect clear, lively, penetrating and seeing things as they are, a moderate and gentle will, and therefore a good conscience—these are privileges which no rank or wealth can make up for or replace. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1141:That human life must be some kind of mistake is sufficiently proved by the simple observation that man is a compound of needs which are hard to satisfy; that their satisfaction achieves nothing but a painless condition in which he is only given over to boredom; and that boredom is a direct proof that existence is in itself valueless, for boredom is nothing other than the sensation of the emptiness of existence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1142:Chi vive tanto da veder passare due o addirittura tre generazioni di uomini si sente come uno spettatore che, durante la fiera, assiste alle esibizioni di saltimbanchi di ogni specie nei loro baracconi, standosene seduto a guardare lo stesso spettacolo per due o tre volte di seguito: i numeri erano studiati per una sola rappresentazione e, una volta scomparse l'illusione e la novità, non fanno più alcun effetto. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1143:It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that makes the philosopher. He must be like Sophocles' Oedipus, who, seeking enlightenment concerning his terrible fate, pursues his indefatigable inquiry even though he divines that appalling horror awaits him in the answer. But most of us carry with us the Jocasta in our hearts, who begs Oedipus, for God's sake, not to inquire further. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1144:Moreover, she is intellectually short-sighted, for although her intuitive understanding quickly perceives what is near to her, on the other hand her circle of vision is limited and does not embrace anything that is remote; hence everything that is absent or past, or in the future, affects women in a less degree than men. This is why they have greater inclination for extravagance, which sometimes borders on madness. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1145:The more clearly you become conscious of the frailty, vanity and dream-like quality of all things, the more clearly will you also become conscious of the eternity of your own inner being; because it is only in contrast to this that the aforesaid quality of things becomes evident, just as you perceive the speed at which a ship is going only when looking at the motionless shore, not when looking into the ship itself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1146:However much the plays and the masks on the world's stage may change it is always the same actors who appear. We sit together and talk and grow excited, and our eyes glitter and our voices grow shriller: just so did others sit and talk a thousand years ago: it was the same thing, and it was the same people: and it will be just so a thousand years hence. The contrivance which prevents us from perceiving this is time. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1147:Kant's old hat; the autographs of great men; these things are gaped at with interest and awe by many who have never read their works. They cannot do anything more than just gape. The intelligent amongst them are moved by the wish to see the objects which the great man habitually had before his eyes; and by a strange illusion, these produce the mistaken notion that with the objects they are bring back the man himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1148:Olhai ao vosso redor! O sintoma externo da brutalidade cada vez mais crescente pode até mesmo ser reconhecido como o elemento que constantemente a acompanha — a barba longa, esse distintivo sexual em meio ao rosto, dizendo-nos que à humanidade prefere-se a masculinidade. Esta nos coloca em pé de igualdade com os animais, uma vez que leva o indivíduo a querer ser antes de tudo um macho, mas, e somente depois um homem. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1149:The intellectual attainments of a man who thinks for himself resemble a fine painting, where the light and shade are correct, the tone sustained, the colour perfectly harmonised; it is true to life. On the other hand, the intellectual attainments of the mere man of learning are like a large palette, full of all sorts of colours, which at most are systematically arranged, but devoid of harmony, connection and meaning. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1150:If, while hurrying ostensibly to the temple of truth, we hand the reins over to our personal interests which look aside at very different guiding stars, for instance at the tastes and foibles of our contemporaries, at the established religion, but in particular at the hints and suggestions of those at the head of affairs, then how shall we ever reach the high, precipitous, bare rock whereon stands the temple of truth? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1151:The cheapest kind of pride, on the other hand, is national pride. For it betrays in those affected by it the lack of individual qualities of which they could be proud, since they would otherwise not grasp at something that they share with so many millions. Rather those who possess significant personal qualities will recognize most clearly the faults of their own nation, since they constantly have them in front of them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1152:If life – the craving for which is the very essence of our being – were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing. But as it is, we take no delight in existence except when we are struggling for something; and then distance and difficulties to be overcome make our goal look as if it would satisfy us. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1153:In youth it is the outward aspect of things that most engages us; while in age, thought or reflection is the predominating qualityof the mind. Hence, youth is the time for poetry, and age is more inclined to philosophy. In practical affairs it is the same: a man shapes his resolutions in youth more by the impression that the outward world makes upon him; whereas, when he is old, it is thought that determines his actions. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1154:The ordinary method of education is to imprint ideas and opinions, in the strict sense of the word, prejudices, on the mind of the child, before it has had any but a very few particular observations. It is thus that he afterwards comes to view the world and gather experience through the medium of those ready-made ideas, rather than to let his ideas be formed for him out of his own experience of life, as they ought to be. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1155:Mio ultimo riparo è ora il rammentargli che egli può utilizzare un libro in vari modi, senza bisogno di leggerlo. Può, come tanti altri, riempire un vuoto della sua biblioteca, dov'esso, ben rilegato, farà certo buona mostra di sé, O anche deporlo sulla toilette o sul tavolino da the della sua dotta amica. O infine egli può ancora, ciò che di certo è il meglio di tutto ed io particolarmente consiglio, farne una recensione. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1156:As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself; because only through ordering what you know by comparing every truth with every other truth can you take complete possession of your knowledge and get it into your power. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1157:No one knows what capacities for doing and suffering he has in himself, until something comes to rouse them to activity: just as in a pond of still water, lying there like a mirror, there is no sign of the roar and thunder with which it can leap from the precipice, and yet remain what it is; or again, rise high in the air as a fountain. When water is as cold as ice, you can have no idea of the latent warmth contained in it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1158:A man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something that he thinks will make him so; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbour with mast and rigging gone. And then, it is all one whether he is happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1159:The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1160:Consider the Koran, for example; this wretched book was sufficient to start a world-religion, to satisfy the metaphysical needs of countless millions for twelve hundred years, to become the basis of their morality and of a remarkable contempt for death, and also to inspire them to bloody wars and the most extensive conquests. Much may be lost in translation, but I have not been able to discover in it one single idea of value. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1161:If two men who were friends in their youth meet again when they are old, after being separated for a life-time, the chief feeling they will have at the sight of each other will be one of complete disappointment at life as a whole; because their thoughts will be carried back to that earlier time when life seemed so fair as it lay spread out before them in the rosy light of dawn, promised so much — and then performed so little. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1162:Assim como todo excesso numa atividade costuma levar ao contrário do que se pretendia, as palavras servem de fato para tornar os pensamentos compreensíveis, mas só até certo ponto. Quando esse ponto é ultrapassado, elas tornam os pensamentos a serem comunicados mais e mais obscuros. Encontrar tal ponto é uma tarefa do estilo e uma questão da capacidade de julgar, pois toda palavra supérflua age diretamente contra seu objetivo. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1163:The only certain rule is the one that Aristotle already gave: do not dispute with anyone and everyone, but only with those people you know who are intelligent enough to avoid saying things that are so stupid as to expose themselves to humiliation, who appreciate the truth, and who gladly listen to good reasons, even when the opponent claims them, and who are balanced enough to bear a defeat when the truth is on the other side. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1164:Genius is its own reward; for the best that one is, one must necessarily be for oneself. . . . Further, genius consists in the working of the free intellect., and as a consequence the productions of genius serve no useful purpose. The work of genius may be music, philosophy, painting, or poetry; it is nothing for use or profit. To be useless and unprofitable is one of the characteristics of genius; it is their patent of nobility. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1165:A man never is happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbor with mast and rigging gone. And then, it is all one whether he has been happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1166:On the philosophy of the Asiatics; "Asiatic Researches", vol. IV, p. 164: "the fundamental tenet of the Vedanta school consisted not in denying the existence of matter, that is of solidity, impenetrability, and extended figure (to deny which would be lunacy), but in correcting the popular notion of it, and in contending that it has no essence independent of mental perception; that existence and perceptibility are convertible terms ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1167:The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1168:Truth that has been merely learned is like an artificial limb, a false tooth, a waxen nose; at best, like a nose made out of another’s flesh; it adheres to us only because it is put on. But truth acquired by thinking of our own is like a natural limb; it alone really belongs to us. This is the fundamental difference between the thinker and the mere man of learning. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, “On Thinking for Oneself,” Parerga und Paralipomena, Vol. 2, § 260,

1169:In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theatre before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin. It is a blessing that we do not know what is really going to happen. Could we foresee it, there are times when children might seem like innocent prisoners, condemned, not to death, but to life, and as yet all unconscious of what their sentence means. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1170:Thrasymachos. Tell me now, in one word, what shall I be after my death? And mind you be clear and precise. Philalethes. All and nothing! Thrasymachos. I thought so! I gave you a problem, and you solve it by a contradiction. That's a very stale trick. Philalethes. Yes, but you raise transcendental questions, and you expect me to answer them in language that is only made for immanent knowledge. It's no wonder that a contradiction ensues. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1171:You should deal sternly and despotically with your memory, so that it does not unlearn obedience; if, for example, you cannot call something to mind, a line of poetry or a word perhaps, you should not go and look it up in a book, but periodically plague your memory with it for weeks on end until your memory has done its duty. For the longer you have had to rack your brains for something the more firmly will it stay once you have got it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1172:animal and plant are the descending fifth and third of man, the inorganic kingdom being the lower octave. The full truth of this last simile will become clear to us only when, in the next book, we attempt to fathom the deep significance of music. There we shall see how the connected melody, progressing in high, light, and quick notes, is to be regarded in a certain sense as expressing the life and efforts of man, connected by reflection. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1173:Do mesmo modo que o papel-moeda circula no lugar da prata, também no mundo, no lugar da estima verdadeira e da amizade autêntica, circulam as suas demonstrações exteriores e os seus gestos imitados do modo mais natural possível. Por outro lado, poder-se-ia perguntar se há pessoas que de facto merecem essa estima e essa amizade. Em todo o caso, dou mais valor aos abanos de cauda de um cão leal do que a cem daquelas demonstrações e gestos. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1174:Omul ordinar este preocupat sa-si omoare timpul, omul de spirit va sti intotdeauna cum sa si-l intrebuinteze. De aceea, jocul de carti a ajuns ocupatia predilecta in orice societate. Neavind idei de schimbat, oamenii schimba cartea la masa si-si cistiga banii unii altora. Cei care nu stiu nici atit, sau sint de-a dreptul prosti, bat darabana cu degetele-n masa. Tigarea inlocuieste, de asemenea, gindirea, atunci cind nu are ce stimula. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1175:If the lives of men were relieved of all need, hardship and adversity; if everything they took in hand were successful, they would be so swollen with arrogance that, though they might not burst, they would present the spectacle of unbridled folly-nay, they would go mad. And I may say, further, that a certain amount of care or pain or trouble is necessary for every man at all times. A ship without ballast is unstable and will not go straight. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1176:If you want to earn the gratitude of your own age you must keep in step with it. But if you do that you will produce nothing great. If you have something great in view you must address yourself to posterity: only then, to be sure, you will probably remain unknown to your contemporaries; you will be like a man compelled to spend his life on a desert island and there toiling to erect a memorial so that future seafarers shall know he once existed. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1177:It is really most absurd to wish to turn this scene of misery into a pleasure spot and set ourselves the goal of achieving pleasures and joys instead of freedom from pain, as so many do. Those who, with too gloomy a gaze, regard this world as a kind of hell and, accordingly, are only concerned with procuring a fireproof room in it, are much less mistaken. The fool runs after the pleasures of life and sees himself cheated; the sage avoids evils. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1178:Em contrapartida, quando o importante é a forma, já que a matéria é acessível a todos, ou já conhecida, portanto quando apenas o que é pensado pode dar valor ao esforço de pensar sobre esse tema, só uma mente de destaque é capaz de nos oferecer algo digno de ser lido. Pois os demais escritores pensam apenas o que qualquer outra pessoa pode pensar. Eles nos oferecem a impressão de seu espírito, mas qualquer um já possui o original dessa impressão. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1179:It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that makes the philosopher. He must be like Sophocles’ Oedipus, who, seeking enlightenment concerning his terrible fate, pursues his indefatigable inquiry even though he divines that appalling horror awaits him in the answer. But most of us carry with us the Jocasta in our hearts, who begs Oedipus, for God’s sake, not to inquire further. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, Letter to Goethe (November 1819),

1180:There is only one inborn erroneous notion ... that we exist in order to be happy ... So long as we persist in this inborn error ... the world seems to us full of contradictions. For at every step, in great things and small, we are bound to experience that the world and life are certainly not arranged for the purpose of maintaining a happy existence ... hence the countenances of almost all elderly persons wear the expression of ... disappointment. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1181:On account of its originality, excellence in every field strikes us as so new and so strange, that to recognize it at first glance will require not only understanding, but also education in the same discipline. As a rule, excellence achieves late recognition, all the later as the discipline is loftier, and those who truly enlighten humankind share the fate of the fixed stars, the light from which requires many years before it descends to the horizon. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1182:The result is that much reading robs the mind of all elasticity, as the continual pressure of a weight does a spring, and that the surest way of never having any thoughts of your own is to pick up a book every time you have a free moment. The practice of doing this is the reason erudition makes most men duller and sillier than they are by nature and robs their writings of all effectiveness: they are in Pope's words: For ever reading, never to be read. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1183:The true basis and propaedeutic for all knowledge of human nature is the persuasion that a man's actions are, essentially and as a whole, not directed by his reason and its designs; so that no one becomes this or that because he wants to, though he want to never so much, but that his conduct proceeds from his inborn and inalterable character, is narrowly and in particulars determined by motivation, and is thus necessarily the product of these two factors. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1184:Come nel tempo ciascun attimo esiste solo in quanto ha cancellato l'attimo precedente - suo padre - per venire anch'esso con la medesima rapidità alla sua volta cancellato; come passato e avvenire (facendo astrazione dalle conseguenze del loro contenuto) sono illusori a modo di sogni, e il presente non è che un limite tra quelli, privo di estensione e durata: proprio così riconosceremo la stessa nullità anche in tutte le altre forme del principio di ragione. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1185:For what a man is in himself, what accompanies him when he is alone, what no one can give or take away, is obviously more essential to him than everything he has in the way of possessions, or even what he may be in the eyes of the world. An intellectual man in complete solitude has excellent entertainment in his own thoughts and fancies, while no amount of diversity or social pleasure, theatres, excursions and amusements, can ward off boredom from a dullard. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1186:Every woman while she would be ready to die of shame if surprised in the act of generation, nonetheless carries her pregnancy without a trace of shame and indeed with a kind of pride. The reason is that pregnancy is in a certain sense a cancellation of the guilt incurred by coitus; thus coitus bears all the shame and disgrace of the affair, while pregnancy, which is so intimately associated with it, stays pure and innocent and is indeed to some extent sacred. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1187:Consideration of the kind, touched on above, might, indeed, lead us to embrace the belief that the greatest wisdom is to make the enjoyment of the present the supreme object of life; because that is the only reality, all else being merely the play of thought. On the other hand, such a course might just as well be called the greatest folly: for that which in the next moment exists no more, and vanishes utterly, like a dream, can never be worth a serious effort. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1188:If the immediate and direct purpose of our life is not suffering then our existence is the most Ill-adapted to its purpose in the world: for it is absurd to suppose that the endless affliction of which the world is everywhere full, and which arises out of the need and distress pertaining essentially to life, should be purposeless and purely accidental. Each individual misfortune, to be sure, seems an exceptional occurrence; but misfortune in general is the rule. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1189:Life presents itself first and foremost as a task: the task of maintaining itself, the task of earning one's living. If this task is accomplished, what has been gained is a burden, and there then appears a second task: that of doing something with it so as to ward off boredom, which hovers over every secure life like a bird of prey. Thus the first task is to gain something and the second to become unconscious of what has been gained, which is otherwise a burden. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1190:There is only one inborn error, and that is the notion that we exist in order to be happy... So long as we persist in this inborn error... the world seems to us full of contradictions. For at every step, in things great and small, we are bound to experience that the world and life are certainly not arranged for the purpose of maintaining a happy existence... hence the countenances of almost all elderly persons wear the expression of what is called disappointment. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1191:The auspices for philosophy are bad if, when proceeding ostensibly on the investigation of truth, we start saying farewell to all uprightness, honesty and sincerity, and are intent only on passing ourselves off for what we are not. We then assume, like those three sophists [Fichte, Schelling and Hegel], first a false pathos, then an affected and lofty earnestness, then an air of infinite superiority, in order to impose where we despair of ever being able to convince. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1192:I came across a wild flower, marveled at its beauty and at the perfection of all its parts, and exclaimed: 'But all this in you and in thousands like you blossoms and fades; it is not noticed by anyone and in fact is often not even seen by any one.' But the flower replied: 'You fool! Do you imagine I blossom in order to be seen? I blossom for my own sake because it pleases me, and not for the sake of others; my joy and delight consist in my being and in my blossoming. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1193:Ah! How little they must have had to think about, to have been able to read so much. And when I actually find it reported of the elder Pliny that he was continually reading or being read to, at table, on a journey, or in his bath, the question forces itself upon my mind, whether the man was so very lacking in thought of his own that he had to have alien thought incessantly instilled into him; as though he were a consumptive patient taking jellies to keep himself alive. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1194:(...) assim como é preciso evitar uma sobrecarga de ornamentações na arquitetura, nas artes discursivas é preciso evitar sobretudo os floreios retóricos desnecessários, todas as amplificações inúteis e, acima de tudo, o que há de supérfluo na expressão, dedicando-se a um estilo casto. Tudo o que é dispensável tem um efeito desvantajoso. A lei da simplicidade e da ingenuidade, já que essas qualidades combinam com o que há de mais sublime, vale para todas as belas-artes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1195:Efortul neincetat de a izgoni suferinta nu are alt rezultat decit o schimbare de suprafata. La origine ea apare sub forma necesitatii si a grijilor materiale. In cazul in care prin munca si eforturi deosebite reusim s-o izgonim sub aceasta forma si infatisare, suferinta se transforma, fiind in continuare prezenta, raportata la virsta si tinind seama de factorul intimplare, sub forma instinctului sexual, geloziei, pasiunii, invidiei, urii, fricii, bolii, zgirceniei etc. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1196:And yet, just as our body would burst asunder if the pressure of the atmosphere were removed from it, so would the arrogance of men expand, if not to the point of bursting then to that of the most unbridled folly, indeed madness, if the pressure of want, toil, calamity and frustration were removed from their life. One can even say that we require at all times a certain quantity of care or sorrow or want, as a ship requires ballast, in order to keep on a straight course. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1197:clumsy charlatan like Hegel is confidently branded as such? German philosophy is precisely so, laden with contempt, mocked abroad, rejected by honest sciences – like a strumpet who, for filthy lucre, yesterday gave herself up to one, today to another; and the minds of the contemporary generation of scholars are jumbled by Hegelian nonsense: incapable of thought, coarse and stupefied, they become the prey of the vulgar materialism that has crept out of the Basilisk's egg ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1198:But inherited wealth reaches its utmost value when it falls to the individual endowed with mental powers of a high order, who is resolved to pursue a line of life not compatible with the making of money; for he is then doubly endowed by fate and can live for his genius; and he will pay his debt to mankind a hundred times, by achieving what no other could achieve, by producing some work which contributes to the general good, and redounds to the honor of humanity at large. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1199:Accordingly, the loss of the beloved one through a rival, or through death, is the greatest pain of all to those passionately in love; just because it is of a transcendental nature, since it affects him not merely as an individual, but also assails him in his essentia aeterna, in the life of the species, in whose special will and service he was here called. This is why jealousy is so tormenting and bitter, and the giving up of the loved one the greatest of all sacrifices. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1200:En değersiz gurur, milli gururdur. Bu, onunla gurur duyandaki bireysel özelliklerin yoksunluğunu ele verir. Çünkü insan neden milyonlarca insanlarla paylaştığı bir özelliğe tutunma gereği duyabilir ki başka türlü? Dikkate değer kişisel niteliklere sahip olan, sürekli göz önünde bulundurduğu ülkesinin hatalarını açıkça görebilecektir. Ama dünyada gurur duyabilecek hiçbir şeyi olmayan her zavallı aptal gurur duyabilmek için son çare olarak ait olduğu ülkesi ile gurur duyar. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1201:Consider the Koran... this wretched book was sufficient to start a world-religion, to satisfy the metaphysical need of countless millions for twelve hundred years, to become the basis of their morality and of a remarkable contempt for death, and also to inspire them to bloody wars and the most extensive conquests. In this book we find the saddest and poorest form of theism. Much may be lost in translation, but I have not been able to discover in it one single idea of value. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1202:Life itself is a sea full of reefs and maelstroms that a human being takes the greatest care and caution to avoid; he uses all his efforts and ingenuity to wend his way through, while knowing that even if he is successful, every step brings him closer to the greatest, the total, the inescapable and irreparable shipwreck, and in fact steers him right up to it, - to death: this is the final goal of the miserable journey and worse for him that all the reefs he managed to avoid. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1203:In order not to judge unfairly one ought also to settle definitely one's expectations from this [our] point of view, and to regard, for example, even learned men, since as a rule they have become so only by the force of outward circumstances, primarily as men whom nature really intended to be tillers of the soil; indeed even professors of philosophy ought to be estimated according to this standard, and then their achievements will be found to come up to all fair expectations. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1204:If I were to say that the so-called philosophy of this fellow Hegel is a colossal piece of mystification which will yet provide posterity with an inexhaustible theme for laughter at our times, that it is a pseudo-philosophy paralyzing all mental powers, stifling all real thinking, and, by the most outrageous misuse of language, putting in its place the hollowest, most senseless, thoughtless, and, as is confirmed by its success, most stupefying verbiage, I should be quite right. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1205:Imagination is strong in a man when that particular function of the brain which enables him to observe is roused to activity without any necessary excitement of the sense. Accordingly, we find that imagination is active just in proportion as our sense are not excited by external objects. A long period of solitude, whether in prison or in a sick room; quiet, twilight, darkness-these are the things that promote its activity; and under their influence it comes into play of itself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1206:In general, however, grand opera, by more and more deadening our musical receptivity through its three-hours duration and at the same time putting our patience to the test through the snail's pace of what is usually a very trite action, is in itself intrinsically and essentially boring; which failing can be overcome only by the excessive excellence of an individual achievement: that is why in this genre only the masterpieces are enjoyable and everything mediocre is unendurable. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1207:İnsanın olası mutluluğunun ölçüsü bireyselliğiyle önceden belirlenmiştir. Özellikle, zihinsel gücünün sınırları yüksek bir hazzı alma yeteneğini sonsuza dek belirlemiştir. Bu sınırlar darsa, dışarıdan gelen tüm çabalar, insanların ve şansın onun için tüm yaptıkları o kişiyi sıradan, yarı hayvansı insani mutluluğun ve hoşnutluğun ötesine geçiremezler. O kişi duyusal zevklere, rahat ve keyifli aile yaşamına, düşük bir dost canlılığına ve kaba saba bir zaman öldürmeye bağlı kalır. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1208:Genius is the ability to leave entirely out of sight our own interest, our willing, and our aims, and consequently to discard entirely our own personality for a time, in order to remain pure knowing subject, the clear eye of the world; and this not merely for moments, but with the necessary continuity and conscious thought to enable us to repeat by deliberate art what has been apprehended and "what in wavering apparition gleams fix in its place with thoughts that stand for ever! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1209:The ingenious person will above all strive for freedom from pain and annoyance, for tranquility and leisure, and consequently seek a quiet, modest life, as undisturbed as possible, and accordingly, after some acquaintance with so-called human beings, choose seclusion and, if in possession of a great mind, even solitude. For the more somebody has in himself, the less he needs from the outside and the less others can be to him. Therefore, intellectual distinction leads to unsociability. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1210:Nature is unfathomable because we seek after causes and consequences in a realm where this form is not to be found. We try to reach the inner being of nature, which looks out at us from every phenomenon, under the guidance of the principle of sufficient reason - whereas this is merely the form under which our intellect comprehends appearance, i.e. the surface of things, while we want to employ it beyond the bounds of appearance; for within these bounds it is serviceable and sufficient. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1211:Quello che tutto conosce, e da nessuno è conosciuto, è il soggetto. Esso è dunque che porta in sé il mondo; è l'universale, ognora presupposta condizione d'ogni fenomeno di ogni oggetto: perché ciò che esiste, non esiste se non per il soggetto. Questo soggetto ciascuno trova in sé stesso; ma tuttavia solo in quanto conosce, non in quanto è egli medesimo oggetto di conoscenza. Oggetto è già invece il suo corpo: ed anch'esso perciò, secondo questo modo di vedere, chiamiamo rappresentazione. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1212:Spinoza says that if a stone which has been projected through the air, had consciousness, it would believe that it was moving of its own free will. I add this only, that the stone would be right. The impulse given it is for the stone what the motive is for me, and what in the case of the stone appears as cohesion, gravitation, rigidity, is in its inner nature the same as that which I recognise in myself as will, and what the stone also, if knowledge were given to it, would recognise as will. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1213:A autentica concisão da expressão consiste em dizer apenas, em todos os casos, o que é digno de ser dito, com a justa distinção entre o que é necessário e o que é supérfluo, evitando todas as explicações prolixas sobre coisas que qualquer um pode pensar por si mesmo. Em contrapartida, nunca se deve sacrificar à concisão a clareza, muito menos a gramática. Enfraquecer a expressão de um pensamento, obscurecer o sentido de uma frase para usar algumas palavras a menos é uma lamentável insensatez. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1214:What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction. Deceptive images of a vague happiness hover before us in our dreams, and we search in vain for their original. Much would have been gained if, through timely advice and instruction, young people could have had eradicated from their minds the erroneous notion that the world has a great deal to offer them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1215:Quando nos perdemos na consideração de grandeza infinita do mundo no espaço e no tempo, quando meditamos nos séculos passados e vindouros, ou também quando consideramos o céu noturno estrelado, tendo inumeráveis mundos efetivamente diante dos olhos, e a incomensurabilidade do cosmo se impõe à consciência - então sentimo-nos reduzidos a nada, sentimo-nos como indivíduo, como corpo vivo, como aparência transitória da vontade, uma gota no oceano, condenados a desaparecer, a dissolvermo-nos no nada. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1216:sont inséparables) comme étant « la science des lois de la pensée, autrement dit, la méthode de la raison » et la dialectique (dérivant de διαλεγεσϑαι : « converser » car toute conversation communique des faits ou des opinions, c.-à-d. est historique ou délibérative) comme étant « l’art de la controverse » (dans le sens moderne du terme). Il est donc évident que la logique traite des a priori, séparables en définitions empiriques, c.-à-d. les lois de la pensée, les processus de la raison (le λογος), ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1217:We can judge the inestimable value of concepts, and consequently of the faculty of reason, if we glance at the endless multitude and variety of things and conditions coexisting and succeeding one another, and then reflect that language and writing (the signs of concepts) are nevertheless able to afford us accurate information about everything and every relation, whenever and wherever it may have been, in that comparatively few concepts concern and represent an infinite number of things and conditions. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1218:Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. This is an error of the intellect as inevitable as that error of the eye which lets us fancy that on the horizon heaven and earth meet. This explains many things, and among them the fact that everyone measures us with his own standard—generally about as long as a tailor's tape, and we have to put up with it: as also that no one will allow us to be taller than himself—a supposition which is once for all taken for granted. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1219:It is the curse of the genius that in the same measure in which others think him great and worthy of admiration, he thinks them small and miserable creatures. His whole life long he has to suppress this opinion; and, as a rule, they suppress theirs as well. Meanwhile, he is condemned to live in a bleak world, where he meets no equal, as it were an island where there are no inhabitants but monkeys and parrots. Moreover, he is always troubled by the illusion that from a distance a monkey looks like a man. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1220:The true work of art leads us from that which exists only once and never again, i.e. the individual, to that which exists perpetually and time and time again in innumerable manifestations, the pure form or Idea; but the waxwork figure appears to present the individual itself, that is to say that which exists only once and never again, but without that which lends value to such a fleeting existence, without life. That is why the waxwork evokes a feeling of horror: it produces the effect of a rigid corpse. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1221:Il mondo come rappresentazione, adunque - e noi non lo consideriamo qui se non sotto questo aspetto - ha due metà essenziali, necessarie e inseparabili. L'una è l'oggetto, di cui sono forma spazio e tempo, mediante i quali si ha la pluralità. Ma l'altra metà, il soggetto, non sta nello spazio e nel tempo: perché essa è intera e indivisa in ogni essere rappresentante; perciò anche un solo di questi esseri, con l'oggetto, integra il mondo come rappresentazione, sì appieno quanto i milioni d'esseri esistenti. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1222:NOT to my contemporaries, not to my compatriots but to mankind I commit my now completed work in the confidence that it will not be without value for them, even if this should be late recognised, as is commonly the lot of what is good. For it cannot have been for the passing generation, engrossed with the delusion of the moment, that my mind, almost against my will, has uninterruptedly stuck to its work through the course of a long life. preface to the second edition of "the world as will and representation ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1223:We should add very much to our happiness by a timely recognition of the simple truth that every man's chief and real existence is in his own skin, and not in other people's opinions [...] To set much too high a value on other people's opinion is a common error everywhere; an error, it may be, rooted in human nature itself, or the result of civilization, and social arrangements generally; but, whatever its source, it exercises a very immoderate influence on all we do, and is very prejudicial to our happiness. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1224:Ma l'unilateralità di questa considerazione verrà integrata nel libro seguente con un'altra verità, la quale non è di certo così immediata come quella da cui qui muoviamo; bensì tale che vi si può esser condotti solo da più profonda indagine, più difficile astrazione, separazione del diverso e riunione dell'identico - una verità che deve apparire molto grave e per ognuno, se non proprio paurosa, almeno meritevole di riflessione: ossia questa, che egli appunto può dire e deve dire: "il mondo è la mia volontà". ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1225:People who pass their lives in reading and acquire their wisdom from books are like those who learn about a country from travel descriptions: they can impart information about a great number of things, but at bottom they possess no connected, clear, thorough knowledge of what the country is like. On the other hand, people who pass their lives in thinking are like those who have visited the country themselves: they alone are really familiar with it, possess connected knowledge of it and are truly at home in it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1226:Any beautiful mind, full of ideas, would always express itself in the most natural, simple and straightforward way, anxious to communicate its thoughts to others (if this is at all possible) and thus relieve the solitude that he must experience in a world such as this: but conversely, intellectual poverty, confusion and wrong-headedness, clothe themselves in the most laboured expressions and obscure turns of phrase in order to conceal petty, trivial, bland or trite thoughts in difficult and pompous expressions. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1227:However, for the man who studies to gain insight, books and studies are merely rungs of the ladder on which he climbs to the summit of knowledge. As soon as a rung has raised him up one step, he leaves it behind. On the other hand, the many who study in order to fill their memory do not use the rungs of the ladder for climbing, but take them off and load themselves with them to take away, rejoicing at the increasing weight of the burden. They remain below forever, because they bear what should have bourne them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1228:Although as a rule the absurd culminates, and it seems impossible for the voice of the individual ever to penetrate through the chorus of foolers and fooled, still there is left to the genuine works of all times a quite peculiar, silent, slow, and powerful influence; and as if by a miracle, we see them rise at last out of the turmoil like a balloon that floats up out of the thick atmosphere of this globe into purer regions. Having once arrived there, it remains at rest, and no one can any longer draw it down again. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1229:In all we do, almost the first thing we think about is, what will people say; and nearly half the troubles and bothers of life may be traced to our anxiety on this score; it is the anxiety which is at the bottom of all that feeling of self-importance, which is so often mortified because it is so very morbidly sensitive. It is solicitude about what others will say that underlies all our vanity and pretension, yes, and all our show and swagger too. Without it, there would not be a tenth part of the luxury which exists. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1230:When we see that almost everything men devote their lives to attain, sparing no effort and encountering a thousand toils and dangers in the process, has, in the end, no further object than to raise themselves in the estimation of others; when we see that not only offices, titles, decorations, but also wealth, nay, even knowledge[1] and art, are striven for only to obtain, as the ultimate goal of all effort, greater respect from one's fellowmen,—is not this a lamentable proof of the extent to which human folly can go? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1231:However, for the man who studies to gain insight, books and studies are merely rungs of the ladder on which he climbs to the summit of knowledge. As soon as a rung has raised him up one step, he leaves it behind. On the other hand, the many who study in order to fill their memory do not use the rungs of the ladder for climbing, but take them off and load themselves with them to take away, rejoicing at the increasing weight of the burden. They remain below forever, because they bear what should have bourne them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1232:Men of great genius, whether their work be in poetry, philosophy or art, stand in all ages like isolated heroes, keeping up single-handed a desperate struggling against the onslaught of an army of opponents. Is not this characteristic of the miserable nature of mankind? The dullness, grosness, perversity, silliness, and brutality of by far the greater part of the race are always an obstacle to the efforts of the genius, whatever be the method of his art; they so form that hostile army to which he at last has to succumb. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1233:Quando observamos a quantidade e a variedade de estabelecimentos de ensino, assim como o grande número de alunos e professores, é possível acreditar que a espécie humana dá muita importância à instrução e à verdade. Entretanto, nesse caso, as aparências também enganam. Os professores ensinam para ganhar dinheiro e não se esforçam pela sabedoria, mas pelo crédito que ganham dando a impressão de possuí-la. E os alunos não aprendem para ganhar conhecimento e se instruir, mas para poder tagarelar e ganhar ares de importantes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1234:And so we are forced to ask, Why and for what purpose does all this torment and agony exist? There is nothing here to give the will pause; it is not free to deny itself and so obtain redemption. There is only one consideration that may serve to explain the sufferings of animals. It is this: that the will to live, which underlies the whole world of phenomena, must, in their case satisfy its cravings by feeding upon itself. This it does by forming a gradation of phenomena, every one of which exists at the expense of another. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1235:Talent is able to achieve what is beyond other people's capacity to achieve, yet not what is beyond their capacity of apprehension; therefore it at once finds its appreciators. The achievement of genius, on the other hand, transcends not only others' capacity of achievement, but also their capacity of apprehension; therefore they do not become immediately aware of it. Talent is like the marksman who hits a target which others cannot reach; genius is like the marksman who hits a target, as far as which others cannot even see. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1236:We accept the present as something that is only temporary, and regard it only as a means to accomplish our aim. Thus, most people will find, if they look back when their life is at an end, that they have lived their lifelong ad interim, and they will be surprised to find that something they allowed to pass by unnoticed and unenjoyed was just their life—that is to say, it was the very thing in the expectation of which they lived. And so it may be said of man in general that, befooled by hope, he dances into the arms of death. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1237:If you have reason to suspect that a person is telling you a lie, look as though you believed every world he said. This will give him courage to go on; he will become vehement in his assertions, and in the end betray himself. Again, if you perceive that a person is trying to conceal something from you, but with only partial success, look at though you did not believe him, this opposition on you part will provoke him into leading out his reserve of truth and bringing the whole force of it to bear upon your incredulity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1238:Just as one spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment. For the more one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read; the mind is like a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is impossible to reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate what one has read. If one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later, what has been read does not take root, but is for the most part lost. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1239:Malebranche teaches that we see all things in God himself. This is certainly equivalent to explaining something unknown by something even more unknown. Moreover, according to him, we see not only all things in God, but God is also the sole activity therein, so that physical causes are so only apparently; they are merely occasional causes. ( Recherches de la vérité , Livre VI, seconde partie, chap. 3.) And so here we have essentially the pantheism of Spinoza who appears to have learned more from Malebranche than from Descartes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1240:The vanity of existence is revealed in the whole form existence assumes: in the infiniteness of time and space contrasted with the finiteness of the individual in both; in the fleeting present as the sole form in which actuality exists; in the contingency and relativity of all things; in continual becoming without being; in continual desire without satisfaction; in the continual frustration of striving of which life consists. . . Time is that by virtue of which everything becomes nothingness in our hands and loses all real value. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1241:Men are like children, in that, if you spoil them, they become naughty. Therefore it is well not to be too indulgent or charitable with anyone. You may take it as a general rule that you will not lose a friend by refusing him a loan, but that you are very likely to do so by granting it; and, for similar reasons, you will not readily alienate people by being somewhat proud and careless in your behavior; but if you are very kind and complaisant towards them, you will often make them arrogant and intolerable, and so a breach will ensue. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1242:O homem seduzido pela ilusão da vida individual, escravo do egoísmo, só vê as coisas que o tocam pessoalmente, e encontra aí motivos incessantemente renovados para desejar e querer; pelo contrário, aquele que penetra a essência das coisas, que domina o conjunto, chega ao repouso de todo o desejo e de todo o querer. Daí em diante a sua vontade desvia-se da vida, repele com susto os gozos que a perpetuam. O homem chega então ao estado da renúncia voluntária, da resignação, da tranqüilidade verdadeira, e da ausência absoluta de vontade. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1243:A happy life is impossible, the highest thing that man can aspire to is a heroic life; such as a man lives, who is always fighting against unequal odds for the good of others; and wins in the end without any thanks. After the battle is over, he stands like the Prince in the re corvo of Gozzi, with dignity and nobility in his eyes, but turned to stone. His memory remains, and will be reverenced as a hero's; his will, that has been mortified all his life by toiling and struggling, by evil payment and ingratitude, is absorbed into Nirvana. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1244:NOT to my contemporaries, not to my compatriots but to mankind I commit my now completed work in the confidence that it will not be without value for them, even if this should be late recognised, as is commonly the lot of what is good. For it cannot have been for the passing generation, engrossed with the delusion of the moment, that my mind, almost against my will, has uninterruptedly stuck to its work through the course of a long life. preface to the second edition of "the world as will and representation ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1245:It is held to be unsuited to the preeminence of reason that beings who are gifted with it, who through it encompass and survey an infinitude of things and circumstances, should by the present and by the incidents contained in the few years of so brief, fleeting, and uncertain a life, be nonetheless prey to such intense pains, such great fear and suffering as arise from the tumultuous press of desire and avoidance, and supposed that proper application of reason should be able to lift a person up out of all that, to render him invulnerable. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1246:Nevertheless, let no one boast. Just as every man, though he be the greatest genius, has very definite limitations in some one sphere of knowledge, and thus attests his common origin with the essentially perverse and stupid mass of mankind, so also has every man something in his nature which is positively evil. Even the best, nay the noblest, character will sometimes surprise us by isolated traits of depravity; as though it were to acknowledge his kinship with the human race, in which villainy--nay, cruelty--is to be found in that degree. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1247:The course and affairs of our individual life, in view of their true meaning and connection, are like a piece of crude work in mosaic. So long as one stands close in front of it, one can not correctly see the objects presented, or perceive their importance and beauty; it is only by standing some distance away that both come into view. And in the same way one often understands the true connection of important events in one’s own life, not while they are happening, or even immediately after they have happened, but only a long time afterwards. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1248:Why, then, does the man in love hang with complete abandon on the eyes of his chosen one, and is ready to make every sacrifice for her? Because it is his immortal part that longs for her; it is always the mortal part alone that longs for everything else. That eager and even ardent longing, directed to a particular woman, is therefore an immediate pledge of the indestructibility of the kernel of our true nature…” ―from The World as Will and Representation . Translated from the German by E. F. J. Payne. In Two Volumes, Volume II, p. 559 ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1249:In truth, however, the continual coming into existence of new beings and the annihilation of already existing ones is to be regarded as an illusion produced by a contrivance of two lenses (brain-functions) through which alone we can see anything at all: they are called space and time, and in their interpenetration causality. For everything we perceive under these conditions is merely phenomenon; we do not know what things are like in themselves, i.e. independently of our perception of them. This is the actual kernel of the Kantian philosophy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1250:Ma come, con l'apparir del sole, il mondo visibile si scopre, così l'intelletto con la sua unica, semplice funzione trasforma d'un tratto in intuizione la confusa e bruta sensazione. Ciò che sente l'occhio, l'orecchio, la mano, non è l'intuizione, ma sono appena i dati dell'intuizione. Solo allor che l'intelletto risale dall'effetto alla causa, apparisce il mondo, esteso nello spazio come intuizione, mutevole nella forma, eterno in quanto materia: perché l'intelletto congiunge spazio e tempo nella rappresentazione di materia, ossia di attività. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1251:The largest library in disorder is not so useful as a smaller but orderly one; in the same way the greatest amount of knowledge, if it has not been worked out in one's own mind, is of less value than a much smaller amount that has been fully considered. For it is only when a man combines what he knows from all sides, and compares one truth with another, that he completely realises his own knowledge and gets it into his power. A man can only think over what he knows, therefore he should learn something; but a man only knows what he has pondered. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1252:And yet if every desire were satisfied as soon as it arose how would men occupy their lives, how would they pass the time? Imagine this race transported to a Utopia where everything grows of its own accord and turkeys fly around ready-roasted, where lovers find one another without any delay and keep one another without any difficulty: in such a place some men would die of boredom or hang themselves, some would fight and kill one another, and thus they would create for themselves more suffering than nature inflicts on them as it is.” —ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER ~ Lou Marinoff,

1253:Because Christian morality leaves animals out of account, they are at once outlawed in philosophical morals; they are mere 'things,' mere means to any ends whatsoever. They can therefore be used for vivisection, hunting, coursing, bullfights, and horse racing, and can be whipped to death as they struggle along with heavy carts of stone. Shame on such a morality that is worthy of pariahs, and that fails to recognize the eternal essence that exists in every living thing, and shines forth with inscrutable significance from all eyes that see the sun! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1254:À glória que surge rapidamente, deve-se acrescentar também a falsa, ou melhor, a glória artificialmente produzida de uma obra, seja por louvor indevido, bons amigos, críticos corrompidos, indicações de superiores e acordos entre inferiores ou pela corretamente suposta incapacidade das massas de julgar. Assemelha-se às boias, com as quais um corpo pesado consegue flutuar na água. Elas carregam-no por mais ou menos tempo, conforme estejam bem cheias e vedadas. No entanto, de qualquer modo o ar vai saindo pouco á pouco e o corpo acaba por se afundar. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1255:The entire world of objects is, and remains, representation; and precisely because of this, it is and will always be thoroughly conditioned by the subject, that is: the world has transcendental ideality.12 But this is also why the world is not a lie or an illusion: it presents itself as what it is, as representation, and in fact as a series of representations bound together by the principle of sufficient reason. To those with common sense, this is how the world is: even its innermost meaning is comprehensible and speaks a language of utter clarity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1256:Now this was possible only by a man determining himself entirely *rationally* according to concepts, not according to changing impressions and moods. But as only the maxims of our conduct, not the consequences or circumstances, are in our power, to be capable of always remaining consistent we must take as our object only the maxims, not the consequences and circumstances, and thus the doctrine of virtue is again introduced.” —from The World as Will and Representation . Translated from the German by E. F. J. Paye in two volumes: volume I, p. 89 ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1257:A man of intellect is like an artist who gives a concert without any help from anyone else, playing on a single instrument--a piano, say, which is a little orchestra in itself. Such a man is a little world in himself; and the effect produced by various instruments together, he produces single-handed, in the unity of his own consciousness. Like the piano, he has no place in a symphony; he is a soloist and performs by himself--in soli tude, it may be; or if in the company with other instruments, only as principal; or for setting the tone, as in singing. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1258:De um ponto de vista geral, [...] a natureza fala da seguinte forma: "O indivíduo é nada e menos de nada. Diariamente, destruo milhões de indivíduos por diversão e passatempo: abandono seu destino nas mãos do mais temperamental e caprichoso dos meus filhos, o acaso, que faz dele sua presa ao seu bel-prazer. Dou vida a milhões de novos indivíduos todos os dias, sem diminuir em nada minha força criativa, do mesmo modo como a força de um espelho não se esgota pelo número de imagens do sol que, uma após a outra, ele reflecte na parede. O indivíduo é nada. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1259:But this has brought about [98]everything that makes the life of humans so rich, so cultivated, and so terrible, that here in the West, which has made them pale and white, and where the ancient, true, profound, original religionsb of their homeland could not follow, humans no longer recognize animals as their brothers, but believe them to be something fundamentally different from themselves; and to maintain this illusion, humans call animals beasts, assigning derogatory terms to all the vital functions which humans have in common with them, considering ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1260:[...] 'We leiden ons leven weliswaar allemaal in de verwachting van betere tijden, maar tegelijk verlangen we vaak met spijt terug naar het verleden. Het heden beschouwen we daarentegen als iets heel tijdelijks, als niet anders dan de weg naar ons doel. Om die reden zien de meeste mensen, wanneer ze op hun leven terugkijken, dat ze voortdurend ad interim hebben geleefd, en stellen ze tot hun verbazing vast dat wat ze zo achteloos en zonder ervan genoten te hebben voorbij hebben laten gaan precies de dingen waren in de verwachting waarvan ze geleefd hadden. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1261:İnsan sadece yalnız olabildiği sürece bütünüyle kendisi olur. Demek ki, yalnızlığı sevmeyen özgürlüğü de sevmez; çünkü insan ancak yalnız olduğunda özgürdür. Zorlama, her toplumun ayrılmaz arkadaşıdır ve her toplum, insanın kendi bireyselliği ne denli önemliyse o denli ağır gelen fedakarlıklar ister. Buna göre, herkes kendi benliğinin değeriyle orantılı olarak yalnızlığa lanet edecek, ona katlanacak ya da onu sevecektir. Çünkü yalnızlık içinde, zavallı kişi tüm zavallılığını, büyük zihin tüm büyüklüğünü duyumsar, kısacası herkes kendini olduğu gibi duyumsar. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1262:Reading is merely a substitute for one's own thoughts. A man allows his thoughts to be put into leading-strings. Further, many books serve only to show how many wrong paths there are, and how widely a man may stray if he allows himself to be led by them. But he who is guided by his genius, that is to say, he who thinks for himself, who thinks voluntarily and rightly, possesses the compass wherewith to find the right course. A man, therefore, should only read when the source of his own thoughts stagnates; which is often the case with the best of minds. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1263:The ordinary writer has an unmistakable preference for this style, because it causes the reader to spend time and trouble in understanding that which he would have understood in a moment without it; and this makes it look as though the writer had more depth and intelligence than the reader. This is, indeed, one of those artifices referred to above, by means of which mediocre authors unconsciously, and as it were by instinct, strive to conceal their poverty of thought and give an appearance of the opposite. their ingenuity in this respect is really astounding. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1264:As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself; because only through ordering what you know by comparing every truth with every other truth can you take complete possession of your knowledge and get it into your power. You can think about only what you know, so you ought to learn something; on the other hand, you can know only what you have thought about. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1265:If, while hurrying ostensibly to the temple of truth, we hand the reins over to our personal interests which look aside at very different guiding stars, for instance at the tastes and foibles of our contemporaries, at the established religion, but in particular at the hints and suggestions of those at the head of affairs, then how shall we ever reach the high, precipitous, bare rock whereon stands the temple of truth? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, "Sketch of a History of the Doctrine of the Ideal and the Real," Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), as translated by E. Payne (1974), Vol. 1, p. 3,

1266:Poetry is related to philosophy as experience is related to empirical science. Experience makes us acquainted with the phenomenon in the particular and by means of examples, science embraces the whole of phenomena by means of general conceptions. So poetry seeks to make us acquainted with the Platonic Ideas through the particular and by means of examples. Philosophy aims at teaching, as a whole and in general, the inner nature of things which expresses itself in these. One sees even here that poetry bears more the character of youth, philosophy that of old age. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1267:Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts. Many books, moreover, serve merely to show how many ways there are of being wrong, and how far astray you yourself would go if you followed their guidance. You should read only when your own thoughts dry up, which will of course happen frequently enough even to the best heads; but to banish your own thoughts so as to take up a book is a sin against the holy ghost; it is like deserting untrammeled nature to look at a herbarium or engravings of landscapes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1268:The monarchical form of government is the form most natural to man. How could it possibly happen that, universally and at all times, many millions, even hundreds of millions, of us men have subjected ourselves to and willingly obeyed one man, occasionally even a woman or, provisionally, a child, if there were not in man a monarchical instinct which drives him to it as to the condition most appropriate to him? . . . Republics are anti-natural, artificial, and derive from reflection: consequently there are also very few of them in the entire history of mankind... ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1269:It need only be remembered that all pleasure is negative, and that pain is positive in its nature, in order to see that the passions can never be a source of happiness, and that age is not the less to be envied on the ground that many pleasures are denied it. For every sort of pleasure is never anything more than the quietive of some need or longing; and that pleasure should come to an end as soon as the need ceases, is no more a subject of complaint than that a man cannot go on eating after he has had his dinner, or fall asleep again after a good night's rest. So ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1270:To attain something desired is to discover how vain it is; and…though we live all our lives in expectation of better things, we often at the same time long regretfully for what is past. The present, on the other hand, is regarded as something quite temporary and serving only as the road to our goal. That is why most men discover when they look back on their life that they have the whole time been living ad interim, and are surprised to see that which they let go by so unregarded and unenjoyed was precisely their life, was precisely in expectation of which they lived. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1271:A man's knowledge may be said to be mature, in other words, when it has reached the most complete state of perfection to which he, as an individual, is capable of bringing it, when an exact correspondence is established between the whole of his abstract ideas and the things he has actually perceived for himself. His will mean that each of his abstract ideas rests, directly or indirectly, upon a basis of observation, which alone endows it with any real value; and also that he is able to place every observation he makes under the right abstract idea which belongs to it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1272:. . . misfortune has its uses; for, as our bodily frame would burst asunder if the pressure of the atmosphere was removed, so, if the lives of men were relieved of all need, hardship and adversity; if everything they took in hand were successful, they would be so swollen with arrogance that, though they might not burst, they would present the spectacle of unbridled folly--nay, they would go mad. And I may say, further, that a certain amount of care or pain or trouble is necessary for every man at all times. A ship without ballast is unstable and will not go straight. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1273:What makes people hard-hearted is this, that each man has, or fancies he has, as much as he can bear in his own troubles. Hence, if a man suddenly finds himself in an unusually happy position, it will in most cases result in his being sympathetic and kind. But if he has never been in any other than a happy position, or this becomes his permanent state, the effect of it is often just the contrary: it so far removes him from suffering that he is incapable of feeling any more sympathy with it. So it is that the poor often show themselves more ready to help than the rich. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1274:If you want a safe compass to guide you through life, and to banish all doubt as to the right way of looking at it, you cannot do better than accustom yourself to regard this world as a penitentiary... If you accustom yourself to this view of life you will regulate your expectations accordingly, and cease to look upon all its disagreeable incidents, great and small, its sufferings, its worries, its misery, as anything unusual or irregular; nay, you will find that everything is as it should be, in a world where each of us pays the penalty of existence in his own peculiar way. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1275:So if you have to live amongst men, you must allow everyone the right to exist in accordance with the character he has, whatever it turns out to be: and all you should strive to do is to make use of this character in such a way as its kind and nature permit, rather than to hope for any alteration in it, or to condemn it off-hand for what it is. This is the true sense of the maxim--Live and let live. That, however, is a task which is difficult in proportion as it is right; and he is a happy man who can once for all avoid having to do with a great many of his fellow creatures. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1276:If you want a safe compass to guide you through life, and to banish all doubt as to the right way of looking at it, you cannot do better than accustom yourself to regard this world as a penitentiary... • If you accustom yourself to this view of life you will regulate your expectations accordingly, and cease to look upon all its disagreeable incidents, great and small, its sufferings, its worries, its misery, as anything unusual or irregular; nay, you will find that everything is as it should be, in a world where each of us pays the penalty of existence in his own peculiar way. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1277:The poet presents the imagination with images from life and human characters and situations, sets them all in motion and leaves itto the beholder to let these images take his thoughts as far as his mental powers will permit. This is why he is able to engage men of the most differing capabilities, indeed fools and sages together. The philosopher, on the other hand, presents not life itself but the finished thoughts which he has abstracted from it and then demands that the reader should think precisely as, and precisely as far as, he himself thinks. That is why his public is so small. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1278:Arthur Schopenhauer. W swojej rozprawie „Metafizyka życia i śmierci” pisał: „(...) Żyjemy zawsze w oczekiwaniu czegoś lepszego, i to często zarazem w pełnej żalu tęsknocie za minionym. Rzeczy teraźniejsze natomiast przyjmujemy w poczuciu tymczasowości, uważając je za nic innego, jak tylko drogę do celu. Dlatego ludzie, spoglądając u kresu swoich dni wstecz, stwierdzają zazwyczaj, że całe ich życie upłynęło pod znakiem ad interim, i ze zdziwieniem widzą, że to, co na ich oczach przechodziło tak niedocenione i mdłe, stanowiło właśnie ich życie – było tym właśnie, w czego oczekiwaniu żyli (...)”. ~ Anonymous,

1279:The latter had assumed the reality of the external world on the credit of God; and here, of course, it seems strange that, whereas the other theistic philosophers endeavour to demonstrate the existence of God from that of the world, Descartes, on the contrary, proves the existence of the world first from the existence and trustworthiness of God; it is the cosmological proof the other way round. Here too Malebranche goes a step farther and teaches that we see all things immediately in God himself. This certainly is equivalent to explaining something unknown by something even more unknown. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1280:And to this world, to this scene of tormented and agonised beings, who only continue to exist by devouring each other, in which, therefore, every ravenous beast is the living grave of thousands of others, and its self-maintenance is a chain of painful deaths; and in which the capacity for feeling pain increases with knowledge, and therefore reaches its highest degree in man, a degree which is the higher the more intelligent the man is; to this world it has been sought to apply the system of optimism, and demonstrate to us that it is the best of all possible worlds. The absurdity is glaring. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1281:Voltaire exclaims: ‘Oh metaphysics! We have come precisely as far as in the time of the early Druids.’c But what other science has always had, like it, the constant handicap of an antagonist ex officio, an appointed fiscal prosecutor, and a king’s champion in full armour who attack it defenceless and unarmed? It will never reveal its true powers or be able to take its giant strides as long as it is expected to conform, under threat, to the dogmas that accrue to the ever so tiny capacity of the great mob. First they bind our arms, and then they mock us for not being able to achieve anything. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1282:What is more, in fact, we very soon look upon the world as something whose non-existence is not only conceivable, but even preferable to its existence. Therefore our astonishment at it easily passes into a brooding over that *fatality* which could nevertheless bring about its existence, and by virtue of which such an immense force as is demanded for the production and maintenance of such a world could be directed so much against its own interest and advantage." ―from The World as Will and Representation . Translated from the German by E. F. J. Payne. In Two Volumes, Volume II, p. 171 ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1283:Hiçbir hakiki bilgi kırıntısına sahip olmaksızın, sırf her şey hakkında çene çalıp gevezelik yapabilmek için, edebiyat tarihlerini okuma yönündeki günümüzün yaygın saplantısına karşı bir panzehir olarak, izin verin size Lichtenberg'den —gerçekten okunmaya değerdir— bir pasaj zikredeyim: "Dünyada kitaplardan daha tuhaf satış metalarına rastlamak galiba imkânsızdır: Anlamayan kimseler tarafından basılır, anlamayan kimseler tarafından satılır, anlamayan kimseler tarafından okunulur, hatta tetkik ve tenkit edilir; ve şimdilerde artık onları anlamayan kimseler tarafından kaleme alınmaktadır." . ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1284:Certain it is that work, worry, labor and trouble, form the lot of almost all men their whole life long. But if all wishes were fulfilled as soon as they arose, how would men occupy their lives? what would they do with their time? If the world were a paradise of luxury and ease, a land flowing with milk and honey, where every Jack obtained his Jill at once and without any difficulty, men would either die of boredom or hang themselves; or there would be wars, massacres, and murders; so that in the end mankind would inflict more suffering on itself than it has now to accept at the hands of Nature. In ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1285:You must allow everyone the right to exist in accordance with the character he has, whatever it turns out to be: and all you should strive to do is to make use of this character in such a way as its kind of nature permits, rather than to hope for any alteration in it, or to condemn it offhand for what it is. This is the true sense of the maxim—Live and let live…. To become indignant at [people’s] conduct is as foolish as to be angry with a stone because it rolls into your path. And with many people the wisest thing you can do, is to resolve to make use of those whom you cannot alter. —ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER ~ Robert Greene,

1286:It will generally be found that, as soon as the terrors of life reach the point at which they outweigh the terrors of death, a man will put an end to his life. But the terrors of death offer considerable resistance; they stand like a sentinel at the gate leading out of this world. Perhaps there is no man alive who would not have already put an end to his life, if this end had been of a purely negative character, a sudden stoppage of existence. There is something positive about it; it is the destruction of the body; and a man shrinks from that, because his body is the manifestation of the will to live. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1287:Gururun en kelepir türü ulusal gururdur. Çünkü bu gurur, kendisine kapılmış olanın gurur duyabileceği bireysel özelliklerinin yokluğunu ele verir; yoksa milyonlarca kişiyle paylaştığı bir şeye başvurmazdı. Önemli kişisel üstünlüklere sahip olan bir kimse, daha çok, sürekli gözünün önünde bulunduğu için, kendi ulusunun hatalarını en açık bir biçimde görecektir. Dünyada gurur duyabileceği hiçbir şeyi olmayan zavallı bir adam, son çareye, ait olmakla gurur duyduğu ulusa uzatır elini; burada kendine gelir ve artık, şükran içinde ulusa özgü tüm hataları ve aptallıkları dişiyle tırnağıyla savunmaya hazırdır. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1288:It will generally be found that, as soon as the terrors of life reach the point at which they outweigh the terrors of death, a man will put an end to his life. But the terrors of death offer considerable resistance; they stand like a sentinel at the gate leading out of this world. Perhaps there is no man alive who would not have already put an end to his life, if this end had been of a purely negative character, a sudden stoppage of existence. There is something positive about it; it is the destruction of the body; and a man shrinks from that, because his body is the manifestation of the will to live. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1289:Vladimir Kush , Shell Bronze , Lovers Entwined (painting) “Why, then, does the man in love hang with complete abandon on the eyes of his chosen one, and is ready to make every sacrifice for her? Because it is his immortal part that longs for her; it is always the mortal part alone that longs for everything else. That eager and even ardent longing, directed to a particular woman, is therefore an immediate pledge of the indestructibility of the kernel of our true nature…” ―from The World as Will and Representation . Translated from the German by E. F. J. Payne. In Two Volumes, Volume II, p. 559 ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1290:Il mondo come rappresentazione, adunque - e noi non lo consideriamo qui se non sotto questo aspetto - ha due metà essenziali, necessarie e inseparabili. L'una è l'oggetto, di cui sono forma spazio e tempo, mediante i quali si ha la pluralità. Ma l'altra metà, il soggetto, non sta nello spazio e nel tempo: perché essa è intera e indivisa in ogni essere rappresentante; perciò anche un solo di questi esseri, con l'oggetto, integra il mondo come rappresentazione, sì appieno quanto i milioni d'esseri esistenti. Ma, se anche solo quell'unico svanisse, cesserebbe d'esistere pure il mondo come rappresentazione. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1291:The right to or claim on something means nothing more than to do it, or take it or be able to use it without in any way thereby injuring another: simplicity is the sign of the true. This sheds light on the meaninglessness of the same questions, e.g. whether we have the right to take our own life. But as concerns the claims that others could personally have upon us, they rest upon the condition that we are living, and therefore cease if the condition ceases. That the one who no longer wants to live for himself should now continue to live merely as a machine for the use of others is an extravagant demand. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1292:In endless space countless luminous spheres, round each of which some dozen smaller illuminated ones revolve, hot at the core and covered over with a hard cold crust; on this crust a mouldy film has produced living and knowing beings: this is empirical truth, the real, the world. Yet for a being who thinks, it is a precarious position to stand on one of those numberless spheres freely floating in boundless space, without knowing whence or whither, and to be only one of innumerable similar beings that throng, press, and toil, restlessly and rapidly arising and passing away in beginningless and endless time. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1293:More than nine-tenths of all literate men and women certainly read nothing but newspapers, and consequently model their orthography, grammar and style almost exclusively on them and even, in their simplicity, regard the murdering of language which goes on in them as brevity of expression, elegant facility and ingenious innovation; indeed, young people of the unlearned professions in general regard the newspaper as an authority simply because it is something printed. For this reason, the state should, in all seriousness, take measures to ensure that the newspapers are altogether free of linguistic errors. A ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1294:Looking at the turmoil of life from this standpoint we find all occupied with its want and misery, exerting all their strength in order to satisfy its endless needs and avert manifold suffering, without, however, daring to expect anything else in return than merely the preservation of this tormented individual existence for a short span of time. And yet, amid all this turmoil we see a pair of lovers exchanging longing glances — yet why so secretly, timidly, and stealthily? Because these lovers are traitors secretly striving to perpetuate all this misery and turmoil that otherwise would come to a timely end. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1295:A constitution embodying nothing but abstract justice would be a wonderful thing, but it would not be suited to beings such as men. Because the great majority of men are in the highest degree egoistic, unjust, inconsiderate, deceitful, sometimes even malicious, and equipped moreover with very mediocre intelligence, there exists the need for a completely unaccountable power, concentrated in one man and standing above even justice and the law, before which everything bows and which is regarded as a being of a higher order, a sovereign by the grace of God. Only thus can mankind in the long run be curbed and ruled. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1296:Natural understanding can take the place of almost every degree of culture, but no culture can take the place of natural understanding. The scholar has the advantage of such men in the possession of a wealth of cases and facts (historical knowledge) and of causal determinations (natural science), all in well-ordered connection, easily surveyed; but yet with all this he has not a more accurate and profound insight into what is truly essential in all these cases, facts, and causations. The unlearned man of acuteness and penetration knows how to dispense with this wealth; we can make use of much; we can do with little. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1297:Embora a classe social e o dinheiro possam sempre contar com um tratamento priveligiado na sociedade, com isso a capacidade intelectual não pode contar: o maior favor que podem prestar à inteligência é ignorá-la, e se as pessoas a percebem, é porque a consideram uma impertinência, ou algo a que o seu possuidor não tem nenhum direito legítimo, e do qual ele apenas ousa se orgulhar; e, em retaliação e vingança por sua conduta, as pessoas secretamente tentam humilhá-lo de alguma forma; e se demoram para fazer isso é só porque esperam pela ocasião mais adequada. (...) se um homem quer agradar, deve ser intelectualmente inferior. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1298:In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theatre before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin. It is a blessing that we do not know what is really going to happen. Could we foresee it, there are times when children might seem like innocent prisoners, condemned, not to death, but to life, and as yet all unconscious of what their sentence means. Nevertheless, every man desires to reach old age; in other words, a state of life of which it may be said: "It is bad to-day, and it will be worse to-morrow; and so on till the worst of all." If ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1299:[I]t is fundamentally false that our search for higher grounds of knowledge, more general truths, springs from the presupposition of an object unconditioned in its being [i.e., Kant's principle of reason], or has anything whatever in common with this. Moreover, how should it be essential to the reason to presuppose something which it must know to be an absurdity as soon as it reflects? The source of that conception of the unconditioned is rather to be found only in the indolence of the individual who wishes by means of it to get rid of all further questions, whether his own or of others, though entirely without justification. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1300:Just as the boatman sits in his small boat, trusting his frail craft in a stormy sea that is boundless in every direction, rising and falling with the howling, mountainous waves, so in the midst of a world full of suffering and misery the individual man calmly sits, supported by and trusting the principium individuationis, or the way in which the individual knows things as phenomenon. The boundless world, everywhere full of suffering in the infinite past, in the infinite future, is strange to him, is indeed a fiction. His vanishing person, his extensionless present, his momentary gratification, these alone have reality for him. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1301:Exaggeration in every sense is as essential to newspaper writing as it is to the writing of plays: for the point is to make as much as possible of every occurrence. So that all newspaper writers are, for the sake of their trade, alarmists: this is their way of making themselves interesting. What they really do, however, is resemble little dogs who, as soon as anything whatever moves, start up a loud barking. It is necessary, therefore, not to pay too much attention to their alarms, and to realize in general that the newspaper is a magnifying glass, and this only at best: for very often it is no more than a shadow-play on the wall. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1302:Rochefoucauld spunea că dragostea poate fi comparată cu o fantomă, deoarece este ceva despre care toţi vorbim, dar niciodată n-am văzut-o, iar Lichtenberg, în eseul său Uber die Macht der Liebe, contestă şi respinge realitatea şi naturaleţea ei; însă amândoi greşesc. Pentru că dacă ar fi ceva aflat în contradicţie şi exterioară naturii umane - cu alte cuvinte, dacă ar fi doar o parodie imaginară, nu ar fi fost zugrăvită cu atâta entuziasm de poeţii tuturor timpurilor, sau nu ar fi fost acceptată de omenire cu o pasiune atât de statornică; pentru că nimic din tot ceea ce reprezintă frumosul şi aparţine artei nu poate exista fără adevăr. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1303:It may sometimes happen that a truth, an insight, which you have slowly and laboriously puzzled out by thinking for yourself could have easily have been found already written in a book: but it is a hundred times more valuable if you have arrived at it by thinking for yourself. For only then will it enter your thought system as an integral part and living member, be perfectly and firmly consistent with it and in accord with all its other consequences and conclusions, bear the hue, colour and stamp of your whole manner of thinking, and have arrived at just the moment it was needed ; thus it will stay firmly and forever lodged in your mind. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1304:Unless suffering is the direct and immediate object of life, our existence must entirely fail of its aim. It is absurd to look upon the enormous amount of pain that abounds everywhere in the world, and originates in needs and necessities inseparable from life itself, as serving no purpose at all and the result of mere chance. Each separate misfortune, as it comes, seems, no doubt, to be something exceptional; but misfortune in general is the rule. I know of no greater absurdity than that propounded by most systems of philosophy in declaring evil to be negative in its character. Evil is just what is positive; it makes its own existence felt. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1305:But a man who does none of these things, who does not even try to do them, who never attempts to learn the rudiments of any branch of knowledge so that he may at least do what he can towards promoting it—such a one, born as he is into riches, is a mere idler and thief of time, a contemptible fellow. He will not even be happy, because, in his case, exemption from need delivers him up to the other extreme of human suffering, boredom, which is such martyrdom to him, that he would have been better off if poverty had given him something to do. And as he is bored he is apt to be extravagant, and so lose the advantage of which he showed himself unworthy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1306:For to start life with just as much as will make one independent, that is, allow one to live comfortably without having to work—even if one has only just enough for oneself, not to speak of a family—is an advantage which cannot be over-estimated; for it means exemption and immunity from that chronic disease of penury, which fastens on the life of man like a plague; it is emancipation from that forced labor which is the natural lot of every mortal. Only under a favorable fate like this can a man be said to be born free, to be, in the proper sense of the word, sui juris, master of his own time and powers, and able to say every morning, This day is my own. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1307:What offends a great intellect in society is the equality of rights, leading to equality of pretensions, which everyone enjoys; while at the same time, inequality of capacity means a corresponding disparity of social power. So-called good society recognizes every kind of claim but that of intellect, which is a contraband article; and people are expected to exhibit an unlimited amount of patience towards every form of folly and stupidity, perversity and dullness; whilst personal merit has to beg pardon, as it were, for being present, or else conceal itself altogether. Intellectual superiority offends by its very existence, without any desire to do so. The ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1308:It would be a great mistake to suppose that it is sufficient not to become personal yourself. For by showing a man quite quietly that he is wrong, and that what he says and thinks is incorrect — a process which occurs in every dialectical victory — you embitter him more than if you used some rude or insulting expression. Why is this? Because, as Hobbes observes, all mental pleasure consists in being able to compare oneself with others to one’s own advantage. — Nothing is of greater moment to a man than the gratification of his vanity, and no wound is more painful than that which is inflicted on it. Hence such phrases as “Death before dishonour,” and so on. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1309:His work is as it were, a sacred object and the true fruit of his life, and his aim in storing it away for a more discerning posterity will be to make it the property of mankind. An aim like this far surpasses all others, and for it he wears the crown of thorns which is one day to bloom into a wreath of laurel. All his powers are concentrated in the effort to complete and secure his work; just as the insect, in the last stage of its development, uses its whole strength on behalf of a brood it will never live to see; it puts its eggs in some place of safety, where, as it well knows, the young will one day find life and nourishment, and then dies in confidence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1310:The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; otherwise he would not have recourse to those which he shares with so many millions of his fellowmen. The man who is endowed with important personal qualities will be only too ready to see clearly in what respects his own nation falls short, since their failings will be constantly before his eyes. But every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud adopts, as a last resource, pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1311:Human life must be some kind of mistake. The truth of this will be sufficiently obvious if we only remember that man is a compound of needs and necessities hard to satisfy; and that even when they are satisfied, all he obtains is a state of painlessness, where nothing remains to him but abandonment to boredom. This is direct proof that existence has no real value in itself; for what is boredom but the feeling of the emptiness of life? If life—the craving for which is the very essence of our being—were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1312:infine l'antichissima sapienza indiana dice: "È Maya, il velo ingannatore, che avvolge gli occhi dei mortali e fa loro vedere un mondo del quale non può dirsi né che esista, né che non esista; perché ella rassomiglia al sogno, rassomiglia al riflesso del sole sulla sabbia, che il pellegrino da lontano scambia per acqua; o anche rassomiglia alla corda gettata a terra, che egli prende per un serpente" (Questi paragoni si trovano ripetuti in luoghi innumerevoli dei Veda e dei Purana). Ma ciò che tutti costoro pensavano, e di cui parlano, non è altro se non quel che anche noi ora, appunto, consideriamo: il mondo come rappresentazione, sottomesso al principio della ragione. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1313:A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free. Constraint is always present in society, like a companion of whom there is no riddance; and in proportion to the greatness of a man's individuality, it will be hard for him to bear the sacrifices which all intercourse with others demands, Solitude will be welcomed or endured or avoided, according as a man's personal value is large or small,—the wretch feeling, when he is alone, the whole burden of his misery; the great intellect delighting in its greatness; and everyone, in short, being just what he is. Further, ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1314:When you consider how great and immediate is the problem of existence, this ambiguous, tormented, fleeting, dream-like existence - so great and so immediate that as soon as you are aware of it, it overshadows and obscures all other problems and aims; and when you then see how men, with a few rare exceptions, have no clear awareness of this problem, indeed seem not to be conscious of it at all, but concern themselves with anything rather than this problem, and live on taking thought only for the day and for the hardly longer span of their own individual future, either expressly refusing to consider this problem or contenting themselves with some system of popular metaphysics.. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1315:Es ciertamente increíble cuán insignificante y banal, vista desde fuera, y cuán aturdida y ciega, sentida desde dentro, pasa la vida de la gran mayoría de los hombres. Es un débil anhelar y atormentarse, un sonámbulo tambalearse a través de las cuatro edades de la vida hasta la muerte, en compañía de una serie de pensamientos triviales. Se asemejan a los mecanismos de relojes, que se les da cuerda y se ponen en marcha sin saber por qué. Y cada vez que un hombre es engendrado y nace, de nuevo se le da cuerda al reloj de la vida humana para que entonces vuelva a interpretar su canción tantas veces repetida ya, movimiento a movimiento, compás por compás, con variaciones insignificantes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1316:Only by the aid of language does reason bring about its most important achievements, namely the harmonious and consistent action of several individuals, the planned cooperation of many thousands, civilization, the State; and then, science, the storing up of previous experience, the summarizing into one concept of what is common, the communication of truth, the spreading of error, thoughts and poems, dogmas and superstitions. The animal learns to know death only when he dies, but man consciously draws every hour nearer his death; and at times this makes life a precarious business, even to the man who has not already recognized this character of constant annihilation in the whole of life itself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1317:The object of the intellect is to light and lead the will on its path, and therefore, the greater the force, impetus and passion, which spurs on the will from within, the more complete and luminous must be the intellect which is attached to it, that the vehement strife of the will, the glow of passion, and the intensity of the emotions, may not lead man astray, or urge him on to ill considered, false or ruinous action; this will, inevitably, be the result, if the will is very violent and the intellect very weak. On the other hand, a phlegmatic character, a weak and languid will, can get on and hold its own with a small amount of intellect; what is naturally moderate needs only moderate support. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1318:Authors can be divided into meteors, planets and fixed stars. The meteors produce a loud momentary effect; we look up, shout 'see there!' and then they are gone for ever. The planets and comets last for a much longer time....The fixed stars alone are constant and unalterable; their position in the firmament is fixed; they have their own light and are at all times active, because they do not alter their appearance through a change in our standpoint, for they have no parallax. Unlike the others, they do not belong to one system (nation) alone, but to the world. But just because they are situated so high, their light usually requires many years before it becomes visible to the inhabitatns of earth. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1319:In general, one must have value oneself in order freely and willingly to acknowledge value in another. This is the basis for the requirement that modesty accompany all merits, as well as the disproportionately loud praise for this virtue which alone, among all its sisters, is always added to the praise of anyone distinguished in some way by the person who dares to praise him, so as to conciliate the worthless and silence their wrath. For what is modesty if not false humility which someone with merits and advantages in a world teeming with perfidious envy uses to beg the pardon of those who have none? Someone who does not lay claim to merit because he in fact has none is being honest, not modest. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1320:There is no better recreation for the mind than the study of the ancient classics. Take any one of them into your hand, be it only for half an hour, and you will feel yourself refreshed, relieved, purified, ennobled, strengthened; just as if you had quenched your thirst at some pure spring. Is this the effect of the old language and its perfect expression, or is it the greatness of the minds whose works remain unharmed and unweakened by the lapse of a thousand years? Perhaps both together. But this I know. If the threatened calamity should ever come, and the ancient languages cease to be taught, a new literature shall arise, of such barbarous, shallow and worthless stuff as never was seen before. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1321:The conviction that the world, and therefore man too, is something which really ought not to exist is in fact calculated to instil in us indulgence towards one another: for what can be expected of beings placed in such a situation as we are? From this point of view one might indeed consider that the appropriate form of address between man and man ought to be, not monsieur, sir, but fellow sufferer, compagnon de misères. However strange this may sound it corresponds to the nature of the case, makes us see other men in a true light and reminds us of what are the most necessary of all things: tolerance, patience, forbearance and charity, which each of us needs and which each of us therefore owes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1322:Nessuna verità è adunque più certa, più indipendente da ogni altra, nessuna ha minor bisogno d'esser provata, di questa: che tutto ciò che esiste per la conoscenza, - adunque questo mondo intero, - è solamente oggetto in rapporto al soggetto, intuizione di chi intuisce; in una parola, rappresentazione. Naturalmente questo vale, come per il presente, così per qualsiasi passato e qualsiasi futuro, per ciò che è lontanissimo come per ciò che è vicino: imperocché vale finanche per il tempo e lo spazio, dentro i quali tutto viene distinto. Tutto quanto è compreso e può esser compreso nel mondo, deve inevitabilmente aver per condizione il soggetto, ed esiste solo per il soggetto. Il mondo è rappresentazione. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1323:Without will there is no concept and no world. Before us, certainly, nothing remains. But what resists this transition into annihilation, our nature, is only that same wish to live -- Wille zum Leben -- which forms ourselves as well as our world. That we are so afraid of annihilation or, what is the same thing, that we so wish to live, merely means that we are ourselves nothing else but this desire to live, and know nothing but it. And so what remains after the complete annihilation of the will, for us who are so full of the will, is, of course, nothing; but on the other hand, for those in whom the will has turned and renounced itself, this so real world of ours with all its suns and milky way is nothing. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1324:Die wohlfeilste Art des Stolzes hingegen ist der Nationalstolz. Denn er verrät in dem damit Behafteten den Mangel an individuellen Eigenschaften, auf die er stolz sein könnte, indem er sonst nicht zu dem greifen würde, was er mit so vielen Millionen teilt. Wer bedeutende persönliche Vorzüge besitzt, wird vielmehr die Fehler seiner eigenen Nation, da er sie beständig vor Augen hat, am deutlichsten erkennen. Aber jeder erbärmliche Tropf, der nichts in der Welt hat, darauf er stolz sein könnte, ergreift das letzte Mittel, auf die Nation, der er gerade angehört, stolz zu sein. Hieran erholt er sich und ist nun dankbarlich bereit, alle Fehler und Torheiten, die ihr eigen sind, mit Händen und Füßen zu verteidigen. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1325:This consists in not taking a book into one’s hand merely because it is interesting the great public at the time — such as political or religious pamphlets, novels, poetry, and the like, which make a noise and reach perhaps several editions in their first and last years of existence. Remember rather that the man who writes for fools always finds a large public: and only read for a limited and definite time exclusively the works of great minds, those who surpass other men of all times and countries, and whom the voice of fame points to as such. These alone really educate and instruct. One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1326:Life and dreams are leaves of one and the same book. The systematic reading is real life, but when the actual reading hour (the day) has come to an end, and we have the period of recreation, we often continue idly to thumb over the leaves, and turn to a page here and there without method or connexion. We sometimes turn up a page we have already read, at others one still unknown to us, but always from the same book. Such an isolated page is, of course, not connected with a consistent reading and study of the book, yet it is not so very inferior thereto, if we note that the whole of the consistent perusal begins and ends also on the spur of the moment, and can therefore be regarded merely as a larger single page. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1327:The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; otherwise he would not have recourse to those which he shares with so many millions of his fellowmen. The man who is endowed with important personal qualities will be only too ready to see clearly in what respects his own nation falls short, since their failings will be constantly before his eyes. But every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud adopts, as a last resource, pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1328:The nobler and more perfect a thing is, the later and slower is it in reaching maturity. Man reaches the maturity of his reasoning and mental faculties scarcely before he is eight-and-twenty; woman when she is eighteen; but hers is reason of very narrow limitations. This is why women remain children all their lives, for they always see only what is near at hand, cling to the present, take the appearance of a thing for reality, and prefer trifling matters to the most important. It is by virtue of man’s reasoning powers that he does not live in the present only, like the brute, but observes and ponders over the past and future; and from this spring discretion, care, and that anxiety which we so frequently notice in people. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1329:Viaţa şi visele sunt filele uneia şi aceleiaşi cărţi. Lectura ei coerentă înseamnă viaţa reală. Dar de fiecare dată, după ce s-a-ncheiat ora (ziua) destinată citirii şi a venit vremea repausului, adesea mai răsfoim plictisiţi câte-o carte, deschizând-o la o pagină sau alta, în dezordine şi incoerent; de multe ori este vorba despre o pagină deja citită sau una încă necunoscută, dar e-ntotdeauna din aceeaşi carte. E-adevărat, o filă citită separat n-are nici o legătură cu lectura integrală şi consecventă, însă astfel ea nu este cu mult mai prejos decât aceasta dacă ne gândim că, în ansamblul ei, şi o lectură consecventă începe şi se termină tot pe nepregătite şi, prin urmare, poate fi privită doar ca o singură pagină mai mare. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1330:Toda satisfacción, o lo que por lo común llamamos dicha, es propia y esencialmente algo siempre negativo y nunca positivo. No se trata de una felicidad genuina que venga a nosotros por sí misma, sino que ha de ser siempre la satisfacción de un deseo. Pues el deseo, es decir, la carencia, es la condición previa a cualquier placer. Ahora bien, con la satisfacción se termina el deseo y, en consecuencia, también el placer. De ahí que la satisfacción o la felicidad nunca puedan ser más que la liberación de un dolor, de una necesidad: así hay que entender no solo el sufrimiento real y evidente, sino también cada deseo cuya inoportunidad perturba nuestra calma, e incluso el tedio mortal que convierte en una carga nuestra existencia. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1331:It has often been noted that three major revolutions in thought have threatened the idea of human centrality. First, Copernicus demonstrated that Earth was not the center about which all celestial bodies revolved. Next, Darwin showed us that we were not central in the chain of life but, like all other creatures, had evolved from other life-forms. Third, Freud demonstrated that we are not masters in our own house-that much of our behavior is governed by forced outside of our consciousness. There is no doubt that Freud’s unacknowledged co-revolutionary was Arthur Schopenhauer, who, long before Freud’s birth, had posited that we are governed by deep biological forced and then delude ourselves into thinking that we consciously choose our activities. ~ Irvin D Yalom,

1332:Just as a brook forms no eddy so long as it meets with no obstructions, so human nature, as well as animal, is such that we do not really notice and perceive all that goes on in accordance with our will. If we were to notice it, then the reason for this would inevitably be that it did not go according to our will, but must have met with some obstacle. On the other hand, everything that obstructs, crosses, or opposes our will, and thus everything unpleasant and painful, is felt by us immediately, at once, and very plainly. Just as we do not feel the health of our whole body, but only the small spot where the shoe pinches, so we do not think of all our affairs that are going on perfectly well, but only of some insignificant trifle that annoys us. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1333:The only safe rule, therefore, is that which Aristotle mentions in the last chapter of his Topica: not to dispute with the first person you meet, but only with those of your acquaintance of whom you know that they possess sufficient intelligence and self-respect not to advance absurdities; to appeal to reason and not to authority, and to listen to reason and yield to it; and, finally, to cherish truth, to be willing to accept reason even from an opponent, and to be just enough to bear being proved to be in the wrong, should truth lie with him. From this it follows that scarcely one man in a hundred is worth your disputing with him. You may let the remainder say what they please, for every one is at liberty to be a fool—desipere est jus gentium. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1334:Considering the monotony and consequent insipidity of life one would find it unendurably tedious after any considerable length of time, were it not for the continual advance of knowledge and insight and the acquisition of even better and clearer understanding of all things, which is partly the fruit of experience, partly the result of the changes we ourselves undergo through the different stages of life by which our point of view is to a certain extent being continually altered, whereby things reveal to us sides we did not yet know. In this way, despite the decline in our mental powers, dies diem docet still holds indefatigably true and gives life an ever-renewed fascination, that what is identical continually appears as something new and different. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1335:When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. In learning to write, the pupil goes over with his pen what the teacher has outlined in pencil: so in reading; the greater part of the work of thought is already done for us. This is why it relieves us to take up a book after being occupied with our own thoughts. And in reading, the mind is, in fact, only the playground of another’s thoughts. So it comes about that if anyone spends almost the whole day in reading, and by way of relaxation devotes the intervals to some thoughtless pastime, he gradually loses the capacity for thinking; just as the man who always rides, at last forgets how to walk. This is the case with many learned persons: they have read themselves stupid. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1336:The scenes in our life resemble pictures in a rough mosaic; they are ineffective from close up, and have to be viewed from a distance if they are to seem beautiful. That is why to attain something desired is to discover how vain it is; and why, though we live all our lives in expectation of better things, we often at the same time long regretfully for what is past. The present, on the other hand, is regarded as something quite temporary and serving as the only road to our goal. That is why most men discover when they look back on their life that they have been living the whole time ad interim, and are surprised to see that which they let go by so unregarded and unenjoyed was precisely their life, was precisely that in expectation of which they lived. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1337:For the will, as that which is common to all, is for that reason also common: consequently, every vehement emergence of will is common, i.e. it demeans us to a mere exemplar of the species. He, who on the other hand. who wants to be altogether uncommon, that is to say great, must never let a preponderant agitation of will take his consciousness altogether, however much he is urged to do so. He must, e.g., be able to take note of the odious opinion of another without feeling his own aroused by it: indeed, there is no surer sign of greatness than ignoring hurtful or insulting expressions by attributing them without further ado, like countless other errors, to the speaker's lack of knowledge and thus merely taking note of them without feeling them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1338:Immediate reality is conditional upon individual consciousness. Thus the individual real existence of man also lies first and foremost in his consciousness. But this is as such necessarily ideational, and thus conditioned by the intellect and by the sphere and substance of the intellect's activity. The degree of clarity of consciousness, and consequently of thought, can therefore be regarded as the degree of reality of existence. But this degree of thought, or of clear consciousness of ones own existence and that of others, varies very greatly within the human race itself according to the measure of natural intellectual power, the extent to which this is developed, and the amount of leisure available for reflection. - On Psychology ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1339:E così, dopo che mi son permesso lo scherzo, al quale non c'è pagina per quanto seria che non debba far posto in questa vita, la quale sempre e ovunque mostra una duplice faccia, offro con intima gravità il libro, con la fiducia che presto o tardi raggiungerà coloro, ai quali solo può esser rivolto; e d'altronde tranquillamente rassegnato a vedergli toccare in piena misura il destino, che sempre toccò alla verità, in ogni dominio del sapere, e tanto più in quello che più importa: alla quale verità è destinato solo un breve trionfo, fra i due lunghi spazi di tempo in cui ella è condannata come paradossale o spregiata come banale. E il primo destino colpisce insieme colui che l'ha trovata. Ma la vita è breve, e la verità opera lontano e lungamente vive: diciamo la verità. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1340:In travelling where novelties of all kinds press in upon us, mental food is often supplied so rapidly from without that there is no time for digestion. We regret that the quickly shifting impressions can leave no permanent imprint. In reality, however, it is with this as it is with reading. How often we regret not being able to retain in the memory one-thousandth part of what is read ! It is comforting in both cases to know that the seen as well as the read has made a mental impression before it is forgotten, and thus forms the mind and nourishes it, while that which is retained in the memory merely fills and swells the hollow of the head with matter which remains ever foreign to it, because it has not been absorbed, and therefore the recipient can be as empty as before. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1341:Gostaria que alguém tentasse escrever um dia uma história trágica da literatura, na qual expusesse como as diferentes nações, cada uma das quais deposita seu maior orgulho nos grandes escritores e artistas que tem a exibir, trataram esses homens durante suas vidas. Assim, o autor poria diante dos nossos olhos aquela interminável batalha travada pelo que é bom e autentico, em todos os tempos e países, contra o domínio do que é deturpado e ruim; descreveria o martírio de quase todos os verdadeiros iluminados da humanidade, de quase todos os grandes mestres em cada disciplina e em cada arte; mostraria como eles, com poucas exceções, sofreram na pobreza e na miséria, sem reconhecimento, sem apreço, sem alunos, enquanto a fama, a honra e a riqueza eram reservadas aos indignos em cada área. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1342:Life presents itself as a continual deception, in small matters as well as in great. If it has promised, it does not keep its word, unless to show how little desirable the desired object was; hence we are deluded now by hope, now by what was hoped for. If it has given, it did so in order to take. The enchantment of distance shows us paradises that vanish like optical illusions, when we have allowed ourselves to be fooled by them. Accordingly, happiness lies always in the future, or else in the past, and the present may be compared to a small dark cloud driven by the wind over the sunny plain; in front of and behind the cloud everything is bright, only it itself always casts a shadow. Consequently, the present is always inadequate, but the future is uncertain, and the past irrecoverable. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1343:The public had been forced to see [by Kant's writings] that what is obscure is not always without meaning; what was senseless and without meaning at once took refuge in obscure exposition and language. Fichte was the first to grasp and make vigorous use of this privilege; Schelling at least equalled him in this, and a host of hungry scribblers without intellect or honesty soon surpassed them both. But the greatest effrontery in serving up sheer nonsense, in scrabbling together senseless and maddening webs of words, such as had previously been heard only in madhouses, finally appeared in Hegel. It became the instrument of the most ponderous and general mystification that has ever existed, with a result that will seem incredible to posterity, and be a lasting monument of German stupidity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1344:Lo que ocupa a todos los seres vivos y los mantiene en movimiento es el afán de existir. Con la existencia, sin embargo, cuando se tiene por segura, los hombres ya no saben qué hacer; por ello, la segunda cosa que los mantiene en movimiento estriba en el afán de librarse del peso de la existencia, hacer que no se note, «matar el tiempo», es decir, escapar al tedio. Y de acuerdo con ello, vemos que casi todos los hombres que se hallan a salvo de la miseria y las preocupaciones, ahora que se han librado por fin de todas las demás cargas, se vuelven una carga para sí mismos y toman por una ganancia cada hora pasada con alguna ocupación, es decir, cada pizca que se sustrae precisamente de esa vida, para la conservación de la cual hasta ese momento habían empleado todas las fuerzas disponibles. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1345:Ordinary society is, in this respect, very like the kind of music to be obtained from an orchestra composed of Russian horns. Each horn has only one note; and the music is produced by each note coming in just at the right moment. In the monotonous sound of a single horn, you have a precise illustration of the effect of most people's minds. How often there seems to be only one thought there! and no room for any other. It is easy to see why people are so bored; and also why they are sociable, why they like to go about in crowds—why mankind is so gregarious. It is the monotony of his own nature that makes a man find solitude intolerable. Omnis stultitia laborat fastidio sui: folly is truly its own burden. Put a great many men together, and you may get some result—some music from your horns! A ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1346:Let me advise you, then, to form the habit to take some of your solitude with you into society, to learn to be to some extent alone even though you are in company; not to say at once what you think, and, on the other hand, not to attach too precise a meaning to what others say; rather, not ot expect much of them, either morally or intellectually, and to strenghten yourself in the feeling of indifference to their opinion, which is the surest way of always practicing a praiseworhty toleration. If you do that, you will not live so much with other people, though you may appear to move amongst them: your relation to them will be of a purely objective character. This precaution will keep you from too close contact with society, and therefore secure you from being contamined or even outraged by it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1347:Let me advise you, then, to form the habit to take some of your solitude with you into society, to learn to be to some extent alone even though you are in company; not to say at once what you think, and, on the other hand,, not to attach too preceise a meaning to what others say; rather, not ot expect much of them, either morally or intellectually, and to strenghten yourself in the feeling of indifference to their opinion, which is the surest way of always practicing a praiseworhty toleration. If you do that, you will not live so much with other people, though you may appear to move amongst them: your relation to them will be of a purely objective character. This precaution will keep you from too close contact with society, and therefore secure you from being contamined or even outraged by it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1348:Junghuhn saw an immense field entirely covered with skeletons, and took it to be a battlefield. However they were nothing but skeletons of large turtles, five feet long, three feet broad, and of equal height. These turtles come this way from the sea, in order to lay their eggs, and are then seized by wild dogs (canis rutilans); with their united strength, these dogs lay them on their backs, tear open their lower armour, the small scales of the belly, and devour them alive. But then a tiger often pounces on the dogs. Now all this misery is repeated thousands and thousands of times, year in, year out. For this then, are these turtles born. For what offence must they suffer this agony? What is the point of the whole scene of horror? The only answer is that the will-to-live [the world-will] thus objectifies itself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1349:The general history of art and literature shows that the highest achievements of the human mind are, as a rule, not favorably received at first; but remain in obscurity until they win notice from intelligence of a high order, by whose influence they are brought into a position which they then maintain, in virtue of the authority thus given them. If the reason of this should be asked, it will be found that ultimately, a man can really understand and appreciate those things only which are of like nature with himself. The dull person will like what is dull, and the common person what is common; a man whose ideas are mixed will be attracted by confusion of thought; and folly will appeal to him who has no brains at all; but best of all, a man will like his own works, as being of a character thoroughly at one with himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1350:University professors, restricted in this way, are quite happy about the matter, for their real concern is to earn with credit an honest livelihood for themselves and also for their wives and children and moreover to enjoy a certain prestige in the eyes of the public. On the other hand, the deeply stirred mind of the real philosopher, whose whole concern in to look for the key to our existence, as mysterious as it is precarious, is regarded by them as something mythological, if indeed the man so affected does not even appear to them to be obsessed by a monomania, should he ever be met with among them. For that a man could really be in dead earnest about philosophy does not as a rule occur to anyone, least of all to a lecturer thereon. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, “On Philosophy in the Universities,” Parerga and Paralipomena, E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 141.,

1351:Speaking generally, sociability stands in inverse ratio with age. A little child raises a piteous cry of fright if it is left alone for only a few minutes; and later on, to be shut up by itself is a great punishment. Young people soon get on very friendly terms with one another; it is only the few among them of any nobility of mind who are glad now and then to be alone;—but to spend the whole day thus would be disagreeable. A grown-up man can easily do it; it is little trouble to him to be much alone, and it becomes less and less trouble as he advances in years. An old man who has outlived all his friends, and is either indifferent or dead to the pleasures of life, is in his proper element in solitude; and in individual cases the special tendency to retirement and seclusion will always be in direct proportion to intellectual capacity. For ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1352:Through neglect of this rule, many men of genius and great scholars have become weak-minded and childish, or even gone quite mad, as they grew old. To take no other instances, there can be no doubt that the celebrated English poets of the early part of this century, Scott, Wordsworth, Southey, became intellectually dull and incapable towards the end of their days, nay, soon after passing their sixtieth year; and that their imbecility can be traced to the fact that, at that period of life, they were all led on? by the promise of high pay, to treat literature as a trade and to write for money. This seduced them into an unnatural abuse of their intellectual powers; and a man who puts his Pegasus into harness, and urges on his Muse with the whip, will have to pay a penalty similar to that which is exacted by the abuse of other kinds of power. And ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1353:Wenn die Disputation etwas streng und formell geführt wird und man sich recht deutlich verständigen will so verfährt der welcher die Behauptung aufgestellt hat und sie beweisen soll gegen seinen Gegner fragend um aus seinen eignen Zugeständnissen die Wahrheit der Behauptung zu schließen. Diese erotematische Methode war besonders bei den Alten im Gebrauch heißt auch Sokratische : auf dieselbe bezieht sich der gegenwärtige Kunstgriff und einige später folgende. Sämtlich frei bearbeitet nach des Aristoteles Liber de elenchis sophisticis 15. Viel auf ein Mal und weitläufig fragen um das was man eigentlich zugestanden haben will zu verbergen. Dagegen seine Argumentation aus dem zugestandenen schnell vortragen: denn die langsam von Verständnis sind können nicht genau folgen und übersehn die etwaigen Fehler oder Lücken in der Beweisführung. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1354:Motivele care-i determină pe oameni să acţioneze sunt în număr de trei: a) Egoismul, care determină bunăstarea individului; el este fără margini; b) Răutatea, care doreşte nenorocirea aproapelui; c) Mila, care vrea binele aproapelui; ea merge până la nobleţe şi grandoare. Orice acţiune omenească are drept cauză unul din aceste mobile, lucrând în parte sau împreună. Egoismul de care cu toţii suntem plini şi pe care-l ascundem din politeţe se trădează în momentul în care instinctiv căutăm în fiecare persoană pe care-o vedem o relaţie sau un mijloc de parvenire către unul din scopurile pe care le urmărim. Când facem o cunoştinţă nouă primul nostru gând este de a şti dacă şi cât ne poate fi folositoare; dacă nu poate, nu reprezintă nimic pentru noi. Este în natura fiinţei umane să vadă în aproapele său un posibil mijloc pentru a-şi atinge scopurile. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1355:On hearing of the interesting events which have happened in the course of a man's experience, many people will wish that similar things had happened in their lives too, completely forgetting that they should be envious rather of the mental aptitude which lent those events the significance they possess when he describes them ; to a man of genius they were interesting adventures; but to the dull perceptions of an ordinary individual they would have been stale, everyday occurrences. This is, in the highest degree, the case with many of Goethe's and Byron's poems, which are obviously founded upon actual facts; where it is open to a foolish reader to envy the poet because so many delightful things happened to him, instead of envying that mighty power of fantasy which was capable of turning a fairly common experience into something so great and beautiful. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1356:May Hegel's philosophy of absolute nonsense - three-fourths cash and one-fourth crazy fancies - continue to pass for unfathomable wisdom without anyone suggesting as an appropriate motto for his writings Shakespeare's words: "Such stuff as madmen tongue and brain not," or, as an emblematical vignette, the cuttle-fish with its ink-bag, creating a cloud of darkness around it to prevent people from seeing what it is, with the device: mea caligine tutus. - May each day bring us, as hitherto, new systems adapted for University purposes, entirely made up of words and phrases and in a learned jargon besides, which allows people to talk whole days without saying anything; and may these delights never be disturbed by the Arabian proverb: "I hear the clappering of the mill, but I see no flour." - For all this is in accordance with the age and must have its course. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1357:The fundamental absurdity of materialism is that it starts from the objective, and takes as the ultimate ground of explanation something objective, whether it be matter in the abstract, simply as it is thought, or after it has taken form, is empirically given - that is to say, is substance, the chemical element with its primary relations. Some such thing it takes, as existing absolutely and in itself, in order that it may evolve organic nature and finally the knowing subject from it, and explain them adequately by means of it; whereas in truth all that is objective is already determined as such in manifold ways by the knowing subject through its forms of knowing, and presupposes them; and consequently it entirely disappears if we think the subject away. Thus materialism is the attempt to explain what is immediately given us by what is given us indirectly. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1358:[T]he whole talk about the absolute, is nothing but the cosmological proof incognito. This proof, in consequence of the case brought against it by Kant, deprived of all right and declared outlawed, dare no longer show itself in its true form, and therefore appears in all kinds of disguises - now in distinguished form, concealed under intellectual intuition or pure thought now as a suspicious vagabond, half begging, half demanding what it wants in more unpretending philosophemes. If an absolute must absolutely be had, then I will give one which is far better fitted to meet all the demands which are made on such a thing than these visionary phantoms: it is matter. It has no beginning, and it is imperishable; thus it is really independent, and quod per se est et per se concipitur; from its womb all proceeds, and to it all returns; what more can be desired of an absolute? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1359:The effectiveness of an author turns chiefly upon his getting the reputation that he should be read. But by practicing various arts, by the operation of chance, and by certain natural affinities, this reputation is quickly won by a hundred worthless people: while a worthy writer may come by it very slowly and tardily. The former possess friends to help them; for the rabble is always a numerous body which holds well together. The latter has nothing but enemies; because intellectual superiority is everywhere and under all circumstances the most hateful thing in the world, and especially to bunglers in the same line of work, who want to pass for something themselves. This being so, it is a prime condition for doing any great work--any work which is to outlive its own age, that a man pay no heed to his contemporaries, their views and opinons, and the praise or blame which they bestow. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1360:Just as a spring, through the continual pressure of a foreign body, at last loses its elasticity, so does the mind if it has another person’s thoughts continually forced upon it. And just as one spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment. For the more one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read; the mind is like a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is impossible to reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate what one has read if one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later, what has been read does not take root, but is for the most part lost. Indeed, it is the same with mental as with bodily food: scarcely the fifth part of what a man takes is assimilated; the remainder passes off in evaporation, respiration, and the like. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1361:Het overgrote deel van alle luister [in de wereld] is louter schijn waaraan het wezen van de zaak ontbreekt, zoals bij toneeldecors. Bewimpelde en bekranste schepen, kanonschoten, feestverlichting, toeters en bellen, juichen en gillen enzovoort, dit alles is enkel het uithangbord, de aanduiding, de hiëroglyfe van de vreugde, maar de vreugde zelf is daar meestal niet te vinden: zij is de enige die voor het feest heeft bedankt. Waar ze werkelijk opduikt, daar komt ze in de regel ongenood en onaangediend, vanzelf en sans façon, stil aangeslopen, vaak bij de meest onbetekenende, bij de futielste aanleidingen, onder de meest alledaagse omstandigheden, het minst nog bij schitterende of roemrijke gelegenheden: ze is als het goud in Australië her en der naar de grillen van het toeval verstrooid, zonder enige regelmaat en wet, veelal slechts in heel kleine korreltjes, hoogst zelden in grote hoeveelheden. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1362:Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel are in my opinion not philosophers; for they lack the first requirement of a philosopher, namely a seriousness and honesty of inquiry. They are merely sophists who wanted to appear to be rather than to be something. They sought not truth, but their own interest and advancement in the world. Appointments from governments, fees and royalties from students and publishers, and, as a means to this end, the greatest possible show and sensation in their sham philosophy-such were the guiding stars and inspiring genii of those disciples of wisdom. And so they have not passed the entrance examination and cannot be admitted into the venerable company of thinkers for the human race. Nevertheless they have excelled in one thing, in the art of beguiling the public and of passing themselves off for what they are not; and this undoubtedly requires talent, yet not philosophical. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1363:The scenes of our life are like pictures in rough mosaic, which have no effect at close quarters, but must be looked at from a distance in order to discern their beauty. So that to obtain something we have desired is to find out that it is worthless; we are always living in expectation of better things, while, at the same time, we often repent and long for things that belong to the past. We accept the present as something that is only temporary, and regard it only as a means to accomplish our aim. So that most people will find if they look back when their life is at an end, that they have lived their lifelong ad interim, and they will be surprised to find that something they allowed to pass by unnoticed and unenjoyed was just their life — that is to say, it was the very thing in the expectation of which they lived. And so it may be said of man in general that, befooled by hope, he dances into the arms of death. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1364:That the objective world would exist even if there existed no conscious being certainly seems at the first blush to be unquestionable because it can be thought in the abstract, without bringing to light the contradiction which it carries within it. But if we desire to realize this abstract thought, that is, to reduce it to ideas of perception, from which alone (like everything abstract) it can have content and truth, and if accordingly we try to imagine an objective world without a knowing subject, we become aware that what we then imagine is in truth the opposite of what we intended, is in fact nothing else than the process in the intellect of a knowing subject who perceives an objective world, is thus exactly what we desired to exclude. For this perceptible and real world is clearly a phenomenon of the brain; therefore there lies a contradiction in the assumption that as such it ought to exist independently of all brains. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1365:[Religia] Musi to być metafizyka popularna, która, jako taka, musi łączyć w sobie rozmaite i rzadkie przymioty, mianowicie: jasność i prostotę, połączoną z niejasnością, a nawet w stosownem miejscu zawiłością; następnie dogmaty jej muszą mieścić w sobie rozumną i wystarczającą etykę; przedewszystkiem zaś powinna przynosić niewyczerpany zapas pociechy w cierpieniach i śmierci; z tego wynika, że będzie mogła być prawdziwą tylko w przenośni, a nie w dosłownem tego słowa znaczeniu; dalej musi jako podstawę posiadać autorytet, zankcjonowany przez starożytność, ogólne uznanie, pomniki pisane, ton i sposób dykcyi, a są to właściwości, które tak trudno połączyć, że niejeden, gdyby zadał sobie trud rozważyć to, nie byłby zbyt pochopny do podkopywania religii, lecz szanowałby ją, jako największy skarb ludzkości. Kto chce krytykować religię, niechaj zawsze najpierw uprzytomni sobie ilość i wartość etyczną tych, dla których religia jest przeznaczona. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1366:There is one thing that, more than any other, throws people absolutely off their balance — the thought that you are dependent upon them. This is sure to produce an insolent and domineering manner towards you. There are some people, indeed, who become rude if you enter into any kind of relation with them; for instance, if you have occasion to converse with them frequently upon confidential matters, they soon come to fancy that they can take liberties with you, and so they try and transgress the laws of politeness. This is why there are so few with whom you care to become more intimate, and why you should avoid familiarity with vulgar people. If a man comes to think that I am more dependent upon him than he is upon me, he at once feels as though I had stolen something from him; and his endeavor will be to have his vengeance and get it back. The only way to attain superiority in dealing with men, is to let it be seen that you are independent of them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1367:La Solitude offre à l'homme intellectuellement haut placé un double avantage : le premier, d'être avec soi-même, et le second, de ne pas être avec les autres. On appréciera hautement ce dernier si l'on réfléchit à tout ce que le commerce du monde apporte avec soi de contraintes, de peines et même de dangers. "Tout notre malheur vient de ne pouvoir être seuls", a dit La Bruyère. La sociabilité appartient aux penchants dangereux et pernicieux, car elle nous met en contact avec des êtres qui en grande majorité sont moralement mauvais et intellectuellement bornés ou détraqués. L'homme insociable est celui qui n'a pas besoin de tous ces gens-là. Avoir suffisamment en soi pour pouvoir se passer de société est déjà un grand bonheur, par la même que presque tous nos mauvais dérivent de la société, et que la tranquilité d'esprit qui, après la santé, forme l'essentiel de notre bonheur, y est mise en péril et ne peut exister sans de longs moments de solitude. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1368:Further, the constitution of our consciousness is the ever present and lasting element in all we do or suffer; our individuality is persistently at work, more or less, at every moment of our life: all other influences are temporal, incidental, fleeting, and subject to every kind of chance and change. This is why Aristotle says: It is not wealth but character that lasts. And just for the same reason we can more easily bear a misfortune which comes to us entirely from without, than one which we have drawn upon ourselves; for fortune may always change, but not character. Therefore, subjective blessings — a noble nature, a capable head, a joyful temperament, bright spirits, a well-constituted, perfectly sound physique, in a word, mens sana in corpore sano, are the first and most important elements in happiness; so that we should be more intent on promoting and preserving such qualities than on the possession of external wealth and external honor. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1369:Bu bağımsız, kendi kendine yeten zihinsel varoluş tarzının bir örneğini Goethe'nin hayatında görürüz. Champagne'daki savaş esnasında, harbin bütün kargaşası ve keşmekeşi ortasında o renk teorisi için gözlemler yapıyordu ve bu savaşın sayısız felaketleri kısa bir süre için Luxemburg şatosuna çekilmesine izin verir vermez Renk Öğretisi'ni yazmaya koyulmuştu. Böylece o bizlere takip etmemiz gereken bir örnek, bir ülkü bırakmıştı: Yeryüzünün tadı tuzu olarak bizler dünyanın selleri fırtınaları, yanımızı yöremizi istila etse de, zihinsel hayatımızın gereklerinin peşinde koşarken bizi asla hiçbir şeyin rahatsız etmesine izin vermemeli ve köle kadının değil, özgür kadının çocukları olduğumuzu hiçbir zaman aklımızdan çıkarmamalıyız. 'Sallanmış, sarsılmış fakat meyveleri dalında' özdeyişiyle birlikte kalkanlarımıza işlenmek üzere bir arma olarak rüzgarın alabildiğine sarsıp salladığı, fakat her şeye rağmen kıpkırmızı meyvelerini dallarından dökemediği bir ağacı öneriyorum. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1370:When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. It is the same as the pupil, in learning to write, following with his pen the lines that have been pencilled by the teacher. Accordingly, in reading, the work of thinking is, for the greater part, done for us. This is why we are consciously relieved when we turn to reading after being occupied with our own thoughts. But, in reading, our head is, however, really only the arena of some one else's thoughts. And so it happens that the person who reads a great deal—that is to say, almost the whole day, and recreates himself by spending the intervals in thoughtless diversion, gradually loses the ability to think for himself; just as a man who is always riding at last forgets how to walk. Such, however, is the case with many men of learning: they have read themselves stupid. For to read in every spare moment, and to read constantly, is more paralysing to the mind than constant manual work... ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1371:No one who has to live amongst men should absolutely discard any person who has his due place in the order of nature, even though he is very wicked or contemptible or ridiculous. He must accept him as an unalterable fact—unalterable, because the necessary outcome of an eternal, fundamental principle; and in bad cases he should remember the words of Mephistopheles: es muss auch solche Käuze geben[1]—there must be fools and rogues in the world. If he acts otherwise, he will be committing an injustice, and giving a challenge of life and death to the man he discards. No one can alter his own peculiar individuality, his moral character, his intellectual capacity, his temperament or physique; and if we go so far as to condemn a man from every point of view, there will be nothing left him but to engage us in deadly conflict; for we are practically allowing him the right to exist only on condition that he becomes another man—which is impossible; his nature forbids it. [Footnote ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1372:A veneração que a grande massa culta reserva ao gênio é da mesma espécie da que os crentes dedicam aos seus santos, ou seja, degenera facilmente num culto pueril às relíquias. A casa de Petrarca em Arquà, a suposta prisão de Tasso em Ferrara, a casa de Shakespeare em Stratford com sua cadeira, a casa de Goethe em Weimar com sua mobília, o velho chapéu de Kant, bem como os respectivos autógrafos, são fitados com atenção e respeito por muitos que nunca leram suas obras, do mesmo modo como milhares de cristãos veneram as relíquias de um santo cuja vida e doutrina não chegaram a conhecer, e como a religião de milhares de budistas consiste muito mais na veneração a Dahtu (dente sagrado), até mesmo a Dagoba (Stupa), que o encerra, ou ao sagrado Patra (gamela), ou ainda à pegada petrificada, à árvore sagrada que Buda semeou, do que no conhecimento profundo e no exercício fiel da sua sublime doutrina. De fato, tais pessoas não são capazes de outra coisa a não ser ficar boquiabertas. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1373:To be a philosopher, that is to say, a lover of wisdom (for wisdom is nothing but truth), it is not enough for a man to love truth, in so far as it is compatible with his own interest, with the will of his superiors, with the dogmas of the church, or with the prejudices and tastes of his contemporaries; so long as he rests content with this position, he is only a φίλαυτος [lover of self], not a φιλόσοφος [lover of wisdom]. For this title of honor is well and wisely conceived precisely by its stating that one should love the truth earnestly and with one’s whole heart, and thus unconditionally and unreservedly, above all else, and, if need be, in defiance of all else. Now the reason for this is the one previously stated that the intellect has become free, and in this state it does not even know or understand any other interest than that of truth. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, “Sketch for a history of the doctrine of the ideal and the real,” Parerga and Paralipomena, E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, pp. 21-22.,

1374:As a reliable compass for orientating yourself in life nothing is more useful than to accustom yourself to regarding this world as a place of atonement, a sort of penal colony. When you have done this you will order your expectations of life according to the nature of things and no longer regard the calamities, sufferings, torments and miseries of life as something irregular and not to be expected but will find them entirely in order, well knowing that each of us is here being punished for his existence and each in his own particular way. This outlook will enable us to view the so-called imperfections of the majority of men, i.e., their moral and intellectual shortcomings and the facial appearance resulting therefrom, without surprise and certainly without indignation: for we shall always bear in mind where we are and consequently regard every man first and foremost as a being who exists only as a consequence of his culpability and whose life is an expiation of the crime of being born. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1375:Kant himself betrays his consciousness of the untenable nature of his doctrine of the categories by the fact that in the third chapter of the Analytic of Principles (phaenomena et noumena) several long passages of the first edition (p. 241, 242, 244-246, 248-253) are omitted in the second - passages which displayed the weakness of that doctrine too openly. So, for example, he says there (p. 241) that he has not defined the individual categories, because he could not define them even if he had wished to do so, inasmuch as they were susceptible of no definition. In saying this he forgot that at p. 82 of the same first edition he had said: 'I purposely dispense with the definition of the categories although I may be in possession of it." This then was, sit venia verbo, wind. But this last passage he has allowed to stand. And so all those passages wisely omitted afterwards betray the fact that nothing distinct can be thought in connection with the categories, and this whole doctrine stands upon a weak foundation. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1376:A number of porcupines huddled together for warmth on a cold day in winter; but, as they began to prick one another with their quills, they were obliged to disperse. However the cold drove them together again, when just the same thing happened. At last, after many turns of huddling and dispersing, they discovered that they would be best off by remaining at a little distance from one another. In the same way the need of society drives the human porcupines together, only to be mutually repelled by the many prickly and disagreeable qualities of their nature. The moderate distance which they at last discover to be the only tolerable condition of intercourse, is the code of politeness and fine manners; and those who transgress it are roughly told—in the English phrase—to keep their distance. By this arrangement the mutual need of warmth is only very moderately satisfied; but then people do not get pricked. A man who has some heat in himself prefers to remain outside, where he will neither prick other people nor get pricked himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1377:But if a man finds himself in possession of great mental faculties, such as alone should venture on the solution of the hardest of all problems—those which concern nature as a whole and humanity in its widest range, he will do well to extend his view equally in all directions, without ever straying too far amid the intricacies of various by-paths, or invading regions little known; in other words, without occupying himself with special branches of knowledge, to say nothing of their petty details. There is no necessity for him to seek out subjects difficult of access, in order to escape a crowd of rivals; the common objects of life will give him material for new theories at once serious and true; and the service he renders will be appreciated by all those—and they form a great part of mankind—who know the facts of which he treats. What a vast distinction there is between students of physics, chemistry, anatomy, mineralogy, zoology, philology, history, and the men who deal with the great facts of human life, the poet and the philosopher! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1378:I have said that people are rendered sociable by their ability to endure solitude, that is to say, their own society. They become sick of themselves. It is this vacuity of soul which drives them to intercourse with others,—to travels in foreign countries. Their mind is wanting in elasticity; it has no movement of its own, and so they try to give it some,—by drink, for instance. How much drunkenness is due to this cause alone! They are always looking for some form of excitement, of the strongest kind they can bear—the excitement of being with people of like nature with themselves; and if they fail in this, their mind sinks by its own weight, and they fall into a grievous lethargy.[1] Such people, it may be said, possess only a small fraction of humanity in themselves; and it requires a great many of them put together to make up a fair amount of it,—to attain any degree of consciousness as men. A man, in the full sense of the word,—a man par excellence—does not represent a fraction, but a whole number: he is complete in himself. [Footnote ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1379:Let me advise you, then, to form the habit of taking some of your solitude with you into society, to learn to be to some extent alone even though you are in company; not to say at once what you think, and, on the other hand, not to attach too precise a meaning to what others say; rather, not to expect much of them, either morally or intellectually, and to strengthen yourself in the feeling of indifference to their opinion, which is the surest way of always practicing a praiseworthy toleration. If you do that, you will not live so much with other people, though you may appear to move amongst them: your relation to them will be of a purely objective character. This precaution will keep you from too close contact with society, and therefore secure you against being contaminated or even outraged by it.[1] Society is in this respect like a fire—the wise man warming himself at a proper distance from it; not coming too close, like the fool, who, on getting scorched, runs away and shivers in solitude, loud in his complaint that the fire burns. [Footnote ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1380:But it is common knowledge that religions don’t want conviction, on the basis of reasons, but faith, on the basis of revelation. And the capacity for faith is at its strongest in childhood: which is why religions apply themselves before all else to getting these tender years into their possession. It is in this way, even more than by threats and stories of miracles, that the doctrines of faith strike roots: for if, in earliest childhood, a man has certain principles and doctrines repeatedly recited to him with abnormal solemnity and with an air of supreme earnestness such as he has never before beheld, and at the same time the possibility of doubt is never so much as touched on, or if it is only in order to describe it as the first step towards eternal perdition, then the impression produced will be so profound that in almost every case the man will be almost incapable of doubting this doctrine as of doubting his own existence, so that hardly one in a thousand will then possess the firmness of mind seriously and honestly to ask himself: is this true? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1381:Writing for money and reservation of copyright are, at bottom, the ruin of literature. No one writes anything that is worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject. What in inestimable boon it would be, if in every branch of literature there were only a few books, but those excellent! This can never happen as long as money is to be made by writing. It seems as though the money lay under a curse; for every author degenerates as soon as he begins to put a pen to paper in any way for the sake of gain. The best works of the greatest men all come from the time when they had to write for nothing or for very little. And here, too, that Spanish proverb holds good, which declares that honour and money are not to be found in the same purse--honra y provecho no caben en un saco. The reason why Literature is in such a bad plight nowadays is simply and solely that people write books to make money. A man who is in want sits down and writes a book, and the public is stupid enough to buy it. The secondary effect of this is the ruin of language. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1382:Now it is very striking, and well worth investigating, that such trifling, nay, apparently childish, means as metre and rhyme produce so powerful an effect. I explain it to myself in the following manner: That which is given directly to the sense of hearing, thus the mere sound of the words, receives from rhythm and rhyme a certain completeness and significance in itself for it thereby becomes a kind of music; therefore it seems now to exist for its own sake, and no longer as a mere means, mere signs of something signified, the sense of the words. To please the ear with its sound seems to be its whole end, and therefore with this everything seems to be attained and all claims satisfied. But that it further contains a meaning, expresses a thought, presents itself now as an unexpected addition, like words to music - as an unexpected present which agreeably surprises us - and therefore, since we made no demands of this kind, very easily satisfies us; and if indeed this thought is such that, in itself, thus said in prose, it would be significant, then we are enchanted. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1383:[Materialism] seeks the primary and most simple state of matter, and then tries to develop all the others from it; ascending from mere mechanism, to chemism, to polarity, to the vegetable and to the animal kingdom. And if we suppose this to have been done, the last link in the chain would be animal sensibility - that is knowledge - which would consequently now appear as a mere modification or state of matter produced by causality. Now if we had followed materialism thus far with clear ideas, when we reached its highest point we would suddenly be seized with a fit of the inextinguishable laughter of the Olympians. As if waking from a dream, we would all at once become aware that its final result - knowledge, which it reached so laboriously, was presupposed as the indispensable condition of its very starting-point, mere matter; and when we imagined that we thought matter, we really thought only the subject that perceives matter; the eye that sees it, the hand that feels it, the understanding that knows it. Thus the tremendous petitio principii reveals itself unexpectedly. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1384:Reading is thinking with some one else's head instead of one's own. But to think for oneself is to endeavour to develop a coherent whole, a system, even if it is not a strictly complete one. Nothing is more harmful than, by dint of continual reading, to strengthen the current of other people's thoughts. These thoughts, springing from different minds, belonging to different systems, bearing different colours, never flow together of themselves into a unity of thought, knowledge, insight, or conviction, but rather cram the head with a Babylonian confusion of tongues; consequently the mind becomes overcharged with them and is deprived of all clear insight and disorganised. This condition of things may often be discerned in many men of learning, and it makes them inferior in sound understanding, correct judgment, and practical tact to many illiterate men, who, by the aid of experience, conversation, and a little reading, have acquired a little knowledge from without, and made it always subordinate to and incorporated it with their own thoughts. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, “Thinking for Oneself,” H. Dirks, trans.,

1385:No difference of rank, position, or birth is so great as the gulf that spearates the countless millions who use their head only in the service of their belly, in other words, look upon it as an instrument of the will, and those very few and rare persons who have the courage to say: No! It is too good for that; my head shall be active only in its own service; it shall try to comprehend the wondrous and varied spectacle of this world, and then reproduce it in some form, whether as art or as literature, that may answer to my character as an individual. These are the truly noble, the real noblesse of the world. The others are serfs and go with the soil. Of course, I am here referring to those who have not only the courage, but also the call, and therfore the right, to order the head to quit the service of the will; with a result that proves the sacrifice to have been worth the making. In the case of those to whom all this can only partially apply, the gulf is not so wide; but even though their talent be small, so long as it is real, there will always be a sharp line of demarcation between them and the millions. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1386:In order to elucidate especially and most clearly the origination of this error (...) let us imagine a man who, while standing on the street, would say to himself: "It is six o'clock in the evening, the working day is over. Now I can go for a walk, or I can go to the club; I can also climb up the tower to see the sunset; I can go to the theater; I can visit this friend or that one; indeed, I also can run out of the gate, into the wide world, and never return. All of this is strictly up to me, in this I have complete freedom. But still I shall do none of these things now , but with just as free a will I shall go home to my wife". This is exactly as if water spoke to itself: "I can make high waves (yes! in the sea during a storm), I can rush down hill (yes! in the river bed), I can plunge down foaming and gushing (yes! in the waterfall), I can rise freely as a stream of water into the air (yes! in the fountain), I can, finally boil away and disappear (yes! at a certain temperature); but I am doing none of these things now, and am voluntaringly remaining quiet and clear water in the reflecting pond. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1387:The look of good sense and prudence, even of the best kind, differs from that of genius, in that the former bears the stamp of subjection to the will, while the latter is free from it. And therefore one can well believe the anecdote [...] how once at the court of the Visconti, when Petrarch and other noblemen and gentlemen were present, Galeazzo Visconti told his son, who was then a mere boy (he was afterwards first Duke of Milan), to pick out the wisest of the company; how the boy looked at them all for a little, and then took Petrarch by the hand and led him up to his father, to the great admiration of all present. For so clearly does nature set the mark of her dignity on the privileged among mankind that even a child can discern it. Therefore, I should advise my sagacious countrymen, if ever again they wish to trumpet about for thirty years a very commonplace person as a great genius, not to choose for the purpose such a beer-house-keeper physiognomy as was possessed by that philosopher [Hegel], upon whose face nature had written, in her clearest characters, the familiar inscription, "commonplace person. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1388:Num dia frio de inverno, alguns porcos-espinhos resolveram se aglomerar bem próximos uns dos outros para proteger-se do frio com o calor recíproco. No entanto, logo sentiram também os espinhos recíprocos, que os obrigaram a se afastar novamente uns dos outros. Quando então a necessidade de se esquentar voltou a aproximá-los, o segundo mal se repetiu, de modo que ficaram oscilando de um lado para o outro entre os dois sofrimentos, até encontrarem uma distância adequada em que pudessem se manter da melhor forma possível. Sendo assim, a necessidade da sociedade, que nasce do vazio e da monotonia do próprio íntimo, aproxima os homens uns dos outros. No entanto, suas inúmeras características repulsivas e seus erros insuportáveis voltam a afastá-los.A distância intermediária que, por fim, conseguem encontrar e que possibilita uma coexistência está na cortesia e nas boas maneiras. Àquele que não mantém essa distância, diz-se na Inglaterra: keep your distance! Com ela, a necessidade de calor recíproco é satisfeita de modo incompleto, porém não se sentem os espinhos alheios. Entretanto, quem possui muito calor interno prefere renunciar à sociedade para não provocar nem receber achaques. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1389:Una vez que Schopenhauer salió a pasear en una noche estrellada con su posterior biógrafo Gwinner, este, puesto que veía a Venus brillar más intensamente que de costumbre, hizo referencia a las almas que Dante situaba en esta estrella como en un lugar de peregrinación, y preguntó entonces al filósofo, volviendo a opiniones más modernas, ni aceptadas ni rebatidas por la ciencia, si no creía que allá arriba pudiera haber formas de existencia más perfectas de lo que somos nosotros. Schopenhauer rechazó tal cosa, pues no concebía que un ser que estuviera mejor constituido que nosotros, pudiera poseer voluntad de vivir. Opinaba que la serie a través de la cual la vida se elevaba acababa en el hombre, que representaba la última expresión de aquella triste progresión cuyos órganos hacían la vida si no deseable, al menos soportable para el ser humano. Y atreviéndose a elevarse cada vez más en sus pensamientos, se dirigió a su interlocutor y le espetó: «¿Acaso piensa usted de verdad que un ser sobrehumano desearía prolongar un solo día más esta mala comedia que es la vida? Esto nos corresponde a lo sumo a nosotros, los hombres; pero los espíritus o los dioses lo declinarían agradecidos». ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1390:It is really a very risky, nay, a fatal thing, to be sociable; because it means contact with natures, the great majority of which are bad morally, and dull or perverse, intellectually. To be unsociable is not to care about such people; and to have enough in oneself to dispense with the necessity of their company is a great piece of good fortune; because almost all our sufferings spring from having to do with other people; and that destroys the peace of mind, which, as I have said, comes next after health in the elements of happiness. Peace of mind is impossible without a considerable amount of solitude. The Cynics renounced all private property in order to attain the bliss of having nothing to trouble them; and to renounce society with the same object is the wisest thing a man can do. Bernardin de Saint Pierre has the very excellent and pertinent remark that to be sparing in regard to food is a means of health; in regard to society, a means of tranquillity—la diète des ailmens nous rend la santé du corps, et celle des hommes la tranquillité de l'âme. To be soon on friendly, or even affectionate, terms with solitude is like winning a gold mine; but this is not something which everybody can do. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1391:The worst of what is called good society is not only that it offers us the companionship of people who are unable to win either our praise or our affection, but that it does not allow of our being that which we naturally are; it compels us, for the sake of harmony, to shrivel up, or even alter our shape altogether. Intellectual conversation, whether grave or humorous, is only fit for intellectual society; it is downright abhorrent to ordinary people, to please whom it is absolutely necessary to be commonplace and dull. This demands an act of severe self-denial; we have to forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to become like other people. No doubt their company may be set down against our loss in this respect; but the more a man is worth, the more he will find that what he gains does not cover what he loses, and that the balance is on the debit side of the account; for the people with whom he deals are generally bankrupt,—that is to say, there is nothing to be got from their society which can compensate either for its boredom, annoyance and disagreeableness, or for the self-denial which it renders necessary. Accordingly, most society is so constituted as to offer a good profit to anyone who will exchange it for solitude. Nor ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1392:If human nature were not base, but thoroughly honourable, we should in every debate have no other aim than the discovery of truth; we should not in the least care whether the truth proved to be in favour of the opinion which we had begun by expressing, or of the opinion of our adversary. That we should regard as a matter of no moment, or, at any rate, of very secondary consequence; but, as things are, it is the main concern. Our innate vanity, which is particularly sensitive in reference to our intellectual powers, will not suffer us to allow that our first position was wrong and our adversary’s right. The way out of this difficulty would be simply to take the trouble always to form a correct judgment. For this a man would have to think before he spoke. But, with most men, innate vanity is accompanied by loquacity and innate dishonesty. They speak before they think; and even though they may afterwards perceive that they are wrong, and that what they assert is false, they want it to seem thecontrary. The interest in truth, which may be presumed to have been their only motive when they stated the proposition alleged to be true, now gives way to the interests of vanity: and so, for the sake of vanity, what is true must seem false, and what is false must seem true. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1393:It is really incredible how meaningless and insignificant when seen from without, and how dull and senseless when felt from within, is the course of life of the great majority of men. It is weary longing and worrying, a dreamlike staggering through the four ages of life to death, accompanied by a series of trivial thoughts. They are like clockwork that is wound up and goes without knowing why. Every time a man is begotten and born the clock of human life is wound up anew, to repeat once more its same old tune that has already been played innumerable times, movement by movement and measure by measure, with insignificant variations. Every individual, every human apparition and its course of life, is only one more short dream of the endless spirit of nature, of the persistent will-to-live, is only one more fleeting form, playfully sketched by it on its infinite page, space and time; it is allowed to exist for a short while that is infinitesimal compared with these, and is then effaced, to make new room. Yet, and here is to be found the serious side of life, each of these fleeting forms, these empty fancies, must be paid for by the whole will-to-live in all its intensity with many deep sorrows, and finally with a bitter death, long feared and finally made manifest. It is for this reason that the sight of a corpse suddenly makes us serious. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1394:In conformity with this spirit and aim of the Stoa, Epictetus begins with it and constantly returns to it as the kernel of his philosophy, that we should bear in mind and distinguish what depends on us and what does not, and thus should not count on the latter at all. In this way we shall certainly remain free from all pain, suffering, and anxiety. Now what depends on us is the will alone, and here there gradually takes place a transition to a doctrine of virtue, since it is noticed that, as the external world that is independent of us determines good and bad fortune, so inner satisfaction or dissatisfaction with ourselves proceeds from the will. But later it was asked whether we should attribute the names *bonum et malum* to the two former or to the two latter. This was really arbitrary and a matter of choice, and made no difference. But yet the Stoics argued incessantly about this with the Peripatetics and Epicureans, and amused themselves with the inadmissible comparison of two wholly incommensurable quantities and with the contrary and paradoxical judgements arising therefrom, which they cast on one another. An interesting collection of these is afforded us from the Stoic side by the *Paradoxa* of Cicero." —from The World as Will and Representation . Translated from the German by E. F. J. Paye in two volumes: volume I, pp. 88-89 ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1395:Except to the most avid seekers of wisdom, Stoicism is either unknown or misunderstood. Indeed, it would be hard to find a word dealt a greater injustice at the hands of the English language than “Stoic.” To the average person, this vibrant, action-oriented, and paradigm-shifting way of living has become shorthand for “emotionlessness.” Given the fact that the mere mention of philosophy makes most nervous or bored, “Stoic philosophy” on the surface sounds like the last thing anyone would want to learn about, let alone urgently need in the course of daily life. What a sad fate for a philosophy that even one of its occasional critics, Arthur Schopenhauer, would describe as “the highest point to which man can attain by the mere use of his faculty of reason.” Our goal with this book is to restore Stoicism to its rightful place as a tool in the pursuit of self-mastery, perseverance, and wisdom: something one uses to live a great life, rather than some esoteric field of academic inquiry. Certainly, many of history’s great minds not only understood Stoicism for what it truly is, they sought it out: George Washington, Walt Whitman, Frederick the Great, Eugène Delacroix, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, Thomas Jefferson, Matthew Arnold, Ambrose Bierce, Theodore Roosevelt, William Alexander Percy, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Each read, studied, quoted, or admired the Stoics. ~ Ryan Holiday,

1396:However, the struggle with that sentinel is, as a rule, not so hard as it may seem from a long way off, mainly in consequence of the antagonism between the ills of the body and the ills of the mind. If we are in great bodily pain, or the pain lasts a long time, we become indifferent to other troubles; all we think about is to get well. In the same way great mental suffering makes us insensible to bodily pain; we despise it; nay, if it should outweigh the other, it distracts our thoughts, and we welcome it as a pause in mental suffering. It is this feeling that makes suicide easy; for the bodily pain that accompanies it loses all significance in the eyes of one who is tortured by an excess of mental suffering. This is especially evident in the case of those who are driven to suicide by some purely morbid and exaggerated ill-humor. No special effort to overcome their feelings is necessary, nor do such people require to be worked up in order to take the step; but as soon as the keeper into whose charge they are given leaves them for a couple of minutes, they quickly bring their life to an end. When, in some dreadful and ghastly dream, we reach the moment of greatest horror, it awakes us; thereby banishing all the hideous shapes that were born of the night. And life is a dream: when the moment of greatest horror compels us to break it off, the same thing happens. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1397:[I]n other words, we should live with due knowledge of the course of things in the world. For whenever a man in any way loses self-control, or is struck down by a misfortune, grows angry, or loses heart, he shows in this way that he finds things different from what he expected, and consequently that he laboured under a mistake, did not know the world and life, did not know how at every step the will of the individual is crossed and thwarted by the chance of inanimate nature, by contrary aims and intentions, even by the malice inspired in others. Therefore either he has not used his reason to arrive at a general knowledge of this characteristic of life, or he lacks the power of judgement, when he does not again recognize in the particular what he knows in general, and when he is therefore surprised by it and loses his self-control. Thus every keen pleasure is an error, an illusion, since no attained wish can permanently satisfy, and also because every possession and every happiness is only lent by chance for an indefinite time, and can therefore be demanded back in the next hour. Thus both originate from defective knowledge. Therefore the wise man always holds himself aloof from jubilation and sorrow, and no event disturbs his ἀταραξία [ataraxia]." —from The World as Will and Representation . Translated from the German by E. F. J. Paye in two volumes: volume I, p. 88 ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1398:In the same way it may be said that a man endowed with great mental gifts leads, apart from the individual life common to all, a second life, purely of the intellect. He devotes himself to the constant increase, rectification and extension, not of mere learning, but of real systematic knowledge and insight; and remains untouched by the fate that overtakes him personally, so long as it does not disturb him in his work. It is thus a life which raises a man and sets him above fate and its changes. Always thinking, learning, experimenting, practicing his knowledge, the man soon comes to look upon this second life as the chief mode of existence, and his merely personal life as something subordinate, serving only to advance ends higher than itself. An example of this independent, separate existence is furnished by Geothe. During the war in the Champagne, and amid all the bustle of the camp, he made observations for his theory of color; and as soon as the numberless calamities of that war allowed of his retiring for a short time to the fortress of Luxembourg, he took up the manuscript of his Farbenlehre. This is an example which we, the salt of the earth, should endeavor to follow, by never letting anything disturb us in the pursuit of our intellectual life, however much the storm of the world may invade and agitate our personal environment; always remembering that we are the songs, not of the bondwoman, but of the free. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1399:Agora, para retornar para minha freqüente ocupação de escrever ficção científica, imagine um mundo no qual o idioma alemão não contém a palavra "alles" ou qualquer um dos seus derivados, mas inclui alguma forma de sombunall (some-but-not-all). Adolph Hitler jamais teria sido capaz de proferir, ou mesmo pensar, a maioria das suas generalizações a respeito dos judeus. Ele poderia ter falado e pensado acerca da parte e não do todo deles. Não defendo que somente isso teria evitado o Holocausto: não estou prestes a oferecer uma forma de determinismo linguístico para competir com o determinismo econômico de Marx ou com o determinismo racial de Hitler, mas... As mentalidades do Holocausto são encorajadas por enunciados generalizantes. Elas são desencorajadas por enunciados específicos. Imagine Arthur Schopenhauer com um sombunall de palavras em vez de palavras generalizantes em seu vocabulário. Ainda assim, ele poderia ter feito generalizações acerca de sombunal mulheres, mas não de todas elas; e uma grande fonte de aversão literária para as mulheres teria desaparecido de nossa cultura. Imagine as feministas escrevendo a respeito de sombunall homens, mas não de todos eles. Imagine um debate referente a óvnis no qual os dois lados pudessem generalizar um sombunall de visões, mas não haveria nenhuma forma linguística para generalizá-las. Imagine o que aconteceria se, juntamente com essa higiene semântica, o "ser" aristotélico fosse substituído pelo neurologicamente mais preciso "parece-me". ~ Robert Anton Wilson,

1400:Mercur stapineste al zecelea an. Cu planeta aceasta omul se misca repede si usor intr-o orbita restrinsa; orice fleac este cauza perturbatoare, dar invata mult si usor sub mina Domnului, sireteniei si elocintei. Cu al douazecilea an incepe stapinirea planetei Venus; dragostea si femeile il stapinesc. In al treizecilea an stapineste Marte; la virsta aceasta omul este violent, indraznet, orgolios si razboinic. La patruzeci de ani barbatul e stapinit de patru planete mici: cimpul vietii sale creste. Este frugi, adica practic, prin influenta lui Ceres; are un camin datorita Vestei; a devenit intelept si invatat datorita lui Palas si, asemenea Junonei, sotia sa domneste stapina in casa. In al cinzecilea an stapineste Jupiter: omul a supravietuit celei mai mari parti a contemporanilor sai, se simte superior generatiei actuale. Are multa forta, experienta si cunostinte. Este, in functie de personalitatea sa, autoritar cu cei ce-l inconjoara. Nu suporta sa i se porunceasca si vrea sa comande. Acum este mai apt sa devina conducator. In al saizecilea an vine Saturn si cu el greutatea, incetineala, tenacitatea plumbului. Multi batrini par ca si morti: sint palizi, greoi si inerti ca plumbul. Cu Uranus, ciclul se incheie. Este momentul, se zice, de a merge in cer. Nu pot sa-l prind in calcul pe Neptun, pentru ca nu-l pot numi cu adevaratul sau nume – Eros. Prin Eros inceputul se leaga de sfirsit. Eros este in conexiune misterioasa cu Moartea. Poate de aceea Horus sau Amentes al Egiptenilor este in acelasi timp “cel care ia” si “cel care da”. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1401:A poet or philosopher should have no fault to find with his age if it only permits him to do his work undisturbed in his own corner; nor with his fate if the corner granted him allows of his following his vocation without having to think about other people. For the brain to be a mere laborer in the service of the belly, is indeed the common lot of almost all those who do not live on the work of their hands; and they are far from being discontented with their lot. But it strikes despair into a man of great mind, whose brain-power goes beyond the measure necessary for the service of the will; and he prefers, if need be, to live in the narrowest circumstances, so long as they afford ihm the free use of his time for the development and application of his faculties; in other words, if they give him the leisure which is invaluable to him. It is otherwise with ordinary people; for them leisure has no value in itself, nor is it, indeed, without its dangers, as these people seem to know. The technical work of our time, which is done to an unprecedented perfection, has, by increasing and multiplying objects of luxury, given the favorites of fortune a choice between more leisure and culture upon the one side, and additional luxury and good living, but with increased activity, upon the other; and true to their character they choose the latter, and prefer champagne to freedom. And they are consistent in their choice; for, to them, every exertion of the mind which does not serve the aims of the will is folly. Intellectual effort for its own sake, they call eccentricity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1402:The fundamental defect of the female character is a lack of a sense of justice. This originates first and foremost in their want of rationality and capacity for reflexion but it is strengthened by the fact that, as the weaker sex, they are driven to rely not on force but on cunning: hence their instinctive subtlety and their ineradicable tendency to tell lies: for, as nature has equipped the lion with claws and teeth, the elephant with tusks, the wild boar with fangs, the bull with horns and the cuttlefish with ink, so it has equipped woman with the power of dissimulation as her means of attack and defence, and has transformed into this gift all the strength it has bestowed on man in the form of physical strength and the power of reasoning. Dissimulation is thus inborn in her and consequently to be found in the stupid woman almost as often as in the clever one. To make use of it at every opportunity is as natural to her as it is for an animal to employ its means of defence whenever it is attacked, and when she does so she feels that to some extent she is only exercising her rights. A completely truthful woman who does not practice dissimulation is perhaps an impossibility, which is why women see through the dissimulation of others so easily it is inadvisable to attempt it with them. – But this fundamental defect which I have said they possess, together with all that is associated with it, gives rise to falsity, unfaithfulness, treachery, ingratitude, etc. Women are guilty of perjury far more often than men. It is questionable whether they ought to be allowed to take an oath at all. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1403:What is knowledge? it is primarily and essentially idea. What is idea? A very complicated physiological process in the brain of an animal, the result of which is the consciousness of a picture there. Clearly the relation between such a picture and something entirely different from the animal in whose brain it exists can only be a very indirect one. This is perhaps the simplest and most comprehensible way of disclosing the deep gulf between the ideal and the real. This belongs to the things of which, like the motion of the earth, we are not directly conscious; therefore the ancients did not observe it, just as they did not observe the motion of the earth. Once pointed out, on the other hand, first by Descartes, it has ever since given philosophers no rest. But after Kant had at last proved in the most thorough manner the complete diversity of the ideal and the real, it was an attempt, as bold as it was absurd, yet perfectly correctly calculated with reference to the philosophical public in Germany, and consequently crowned with brilliant results, to try to assert the absolute identity of the two by dogmatic utterances, on the strength of a pretended intellectual intuition. In truth, on the contrary, a subjective and an objective existence, a being for self and a being for others, a consciousness of one's own self, and a consciousness of other things, is given us directly, and the two are given in such a fundamentally different manner that no other difference can compare with this. About himself every one knows directly, about all others only very indirectly. This is the fact and the problem. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1404:The most perfect and satisfactory knowledge is that of perception but this is limited to the absolutely particular, to the individual. The comprehension of the many and the various into *one* representation is possible only through the *concept*, in other words, by omitting the differences; consequently, the concept is a very imperfect way of representing things. The particular, of course, can also be apprehended immediately as a universal, namely when it is raised to the (Platonic) *Idea*; but in this process, which I have analysed in the third book, the intellect passes beyond the limits of individuality and therefore of time; moreover, this is only an exception. These inner and essential imperfections of the intellect are further increased by a disturbance to some extent external to it but yet inevitable, namely, the influence that the *will* exerts on all its operations, as soon as that will is in any way concerned in their result. Every passion, in fact every inclination or disinclination, tinges the objects of knowledge with its colour. Most common of occurrence is the falsification of knowledge brought about by desire and hope, since they show us the scarcely possible in dazzling colours as probable and well-nigh certain, and render us almost incapable of comprehending what is opposed to it. Fear acts in a similar way; every preconceived opinion, every partiality, and, as I have said, every interest, every emotion, and every predilection of the will act in an analogous manner. Finally, to all these imperfections of the intellect we must also add the fact that it grows old with the brain; in other words, like all physiological functions, it loses its energy in later years; in this way all its imperfections are then greatly increased.” —from The World as Will and Representation . Translated from the German by E. F. J. Payne in two volumes: volume II, pp. 139-141 ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1405:Weil nun aber unser Zustand vielmehr etwas ist, das besser nicht wäre; so trägt Alles, was uns umgiebt, die Spur hievon – gleich wie in der Hölle Alles nach Schwefel riecht, – indem Jegliches stets unvollkommen und trüglich, jedes Angenehme mit Unangenehmem versetzt, jeder Genuß immer nur ein halber ist, jedes Vergnügen seine eigene Störung, jede Erleichterung neue Beschwerde herbeiführt, jedes Hülfsmittel unserer täglichen und stündlichen Noch uns alle Augenblicke im Stich läßt und seinen Dienst versagt, die Stufe, auf welche wir treten, so oft unter uns bricht, ja, Unfälle, große und kleine, das Element unsers Lebens sind, und wir, mit Einem Wort, dem Phineus gleichen, dem die Harpyen alle Speisen besudelten und ungenießbar machten. Alles was wir anfassen, widersetzt sich, weil es seinen eigenen Willen hat, der überwunden werden muß. Zwei Mittel werden dagegen versucht: erstlich die eulabeia, d.i. Klugheit, Vorsicht, Schlauheit: sie lernt nicht aus und reicht nicht aus und wird zu Schanden, Zweitens, der Stoische Gleichmuth, welcher jeden Unfall entwaffnen will, durch Gefaßtseyn auf alle und Verschmähen von Allem: praktisch wird er zur kynischen Entsagung, die lieber, ein für alle Mal, alle Hülfsmittel und Erleichterungen von sich wirft: sie macht uns zu Hunden: wie den Diogenes in der Tonne. Die Wahrheit ist: wir sollen elend seyn, und sind's. Dabei ist die Hauptquelle der ernstlichsten Uebel, die den Menschen treffen, der Mensch selbst: homo homini lupus. Wer dies Letztere recht ins Auge faßt, erblickt die Welt als eine Hölle, welche die des Dante dadurch übertrifft, daß Einer der Teufel des Andern seyn muß; wozu denn freilich Einer vor dem Andern geeignet ist, vor Allen wohl ein Erzteufel, in Gestalt eines Eroberers auftretend, der einige Hundert Tausend Menschen einander gegenüberstellt und ihnen zuruft: "Leiden und Sterben ist euere Bestimmung: jetzt schießt mit Flinten und Kanonen auf einander los!" und sie thun es. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1406:L'Art d’avoir toujours raison La dialectique 1 éristique est l’art de disputer, et ce de telle sorte que l’on ait toujours raison, donc per fas et nefas (c’est-à-dire par tous les moyens possibles)2. On peut en effet avoir objectivement raison quant au débat lui-même tout en ayant tort aux yeux des personnes présentes, et parfois même à ses propres yeux. En effet, quand mon adversaire réfute ma preuve et que cela équivaut à réfuter mon affirmation elle-même, qui peut cependant être étayée par d’autres preuves – auquel cas, bien entendu, le rapport est inversé en ce qui concerne mon adversaire : il a raison bien qu’il ait objectivement tort. Donc, la vérité objective d’une proposition et la validité de celle-ci au plan de l’approbation des opposants et des auditeurs sont deux choses bien distinctes. (C'est à cette dernière que se rapporte la dialectique.) D’où cela vient-il ? De la médiocrité naturelle de l’espèce humaine. Si ce n’était pas le cas, si nous étions foncièrement honnêtes, nous ne chercherions, dans tout débat, qu’à faire surgir la vérité, sans nous soucier de savoir si elle est conforme à l’opinion que nous avions d’abord défendue ou à celle de l’adversaire : ce qui n’aurait pas d’importance ou serait du moins tout à fait secondaire. Mais c’est désormais l’essentiel. La vanité innée, particulièrement irritable en ce qui concerne les facultés intellectuelles, ne veut pas accepter que notre affirmation se révèle fausse, ni que celle de l’adversaire soit juste. Par conséquent, chacun devrait simplement s’efforcer de n’exprimer que des jugements justes, ce qui devrait inciter à penser d’abord et à parler ensuite. Mais chez la plupart des hommes, la vanité innée s’accompagne d’un besoin de bavardage et d’une malhonnêteté innée. Ils parlent avant d’avoir réfléchi, et même s’ils se rendent compte après coup que leur affirmation est fausse et qu’ils ont tort, il faut que les apparences prouvent le contraire. Leur intérêt pour la vérité, qui doit sans doute être généralement l’unique motif les guidant lors de l’affirmation d’une thèse supposée vraie, s’efface complètement devant les intérêts de leur vanité : le vrai doit paraître faux et le faux vrai. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1407:1. Lesen ist ein bloßes Surrogat des eigenen Denkens. Man läßt dabei seine Gedanken von dem Andern am Gängelbande führen. [...] Lesen soll man nur dann, wann auch die Quelle der eigenen Gedanken stockt; was auch beim besten Kopfe oft genug der Fall seyn wird. Hingegen die eigenen, urkräftigen Gedanken verscheuchen, um ein Buch zur Hand zu nehmen, ist Sünde wider den heiligen Geist. Man gleicht alsdann Dem, der aus der freien Natur flieht, um ein Herbarium zu besehn, oder um schöne Gegenden im Kupferstiche zu betrachten. 2. Wann wir lesen, denkt ein Anderer für uns: wir wiederholen bloß den mentalen Prozeß. Es ist damit, wie wenn beim Schreibenlernen der Schüler die vom Lehrer mit Bleistift geschriebenen Züge mit der Feder nachzieht. Demnach ist beim Lesen die Arbeit des Denkens un zum großen Theile abgenommen. Daher die fühlbare Erleichterung, wenn wir von der Beschäftigung mit unseren eigenen Gedanken zum Lesen übergehn. Eben daher kommt es auch, daß wer sehr viel und fast den ganzen Tag liest, dazwischen aber sich in gedankenlosem Zeitvertreibe erholt, die Fähigkeit, selbst zu denken, allmälig verliert, - wie Einer, der immer reitet, zuletzt das Gehn verlernt. Solches aber ist der Fall sehr vieler Gelehrten: sie haben sich dumm gelesen. Denn beständiges, in jedem freien Augenblicke sogleich wieder aufgenommenes Lesen ist noch geisteslähmender, als beständige Handarbeit; da man bei dieser doch den eigenen Gedanken nachhängen kann. Aber wie eine Springfeder durch den anhaltenden Druck eines fremden Körpers ihre Elasticität endlich einbüßt; so der Geist die seine, durch fortwährendes Aufdringen fremder Gedanken. Und wie man durch zu viele Nahrung den Magen verdirbt und dadurch dem ganzen Leibe schadet; so kann man auch durch zu viele Geistesnahrung den Geist überfüllen und ersticken. Denn selbst das Gelesene eignet man sich erst durch späteres Nachdenken darüber an, durch Rumination. Liest man hingegen immerfort, ohne späterhin weiter daran zu denken; so faßt es nichtWurzel und geht meistens verloren: Ueberhaupt aber geht es mit der geistigen Nahrung nicht anders, als mit der leibichen: kaum der funfzigste Theil von dem, was man zu sich nimmt, wird assimilirt: das Uebrige geht durch Evaporation, Respiration, oder sonst ab. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1408:Which philosophers would Alain suggest for practical living? Alain’s list overlaps nearly 100% with my own: Epicurus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Plato, Michel de Montaigne, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Bertrand Russell. * Most-gifted or recommended books? The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, Essays of Michel de Montaigne. * Favorite documentary The Up series: This ongoing series is filmed in the UK, and revisits the same group of people every 7 years. It started with their 7th birthdays (Seven Up!) and continues up to present day, when they are in their 50s. Subjects were picked from a wide variety of social backgrounds. Alain calls these very undramatic and quietly powerful films “probably the best documentary that exists.” TF: This is also the favorite of Stephen Dubner on page 574. Stephen says, “If you are at all interested in any kind of science or sociology, or human decision-making, or nurture versus nature, it is the best thing ever.” * Advice to your 30-year-old self? “I would have said, ‘Appreciate what’s good about this moment. Don’t always think that you’re on a permanent journey. Stop and enjoy the view.’ . . . I always had this assumption that if you appreciate the moment, you’re weakening your resolve to improve your circumstances. That’s not true, but I think when you’re young, it’s sort of associated with that. . . . I had people around me who’d say things like, ‘Oh, a flower, nice.’ A little part of me was thinking, ‘You absolute loser. You’ve taken time to appreciate a flower? Do you not have bigger plans? I mean, this the limit of your ambition?’ and when life’s knocked you around a bit and when you’ve seen a few things, and time has happened and you’ve got some years under your belt, you start to think more highly of modest things like flowers and a pretty sky, or just a morning where nothing’s wrong and everyone’s been pretty nice to everyone else. . . . Fortune can do anything with us. We are very fragile creatures. You only need to tap us or hit us in slightly the wrong place. . . . You only have to push us a little bit, and we crack very easily, whether that’s the pressure of disgrace or physical illness, financial pressure, etc. It doesn’t take very much. So, we do have to appreciate every day that goes by without a major disaster. ~ Timothy Ferriss,

1409:reading :::    50 Philosophy Classics: List of Books Covered:    1. Hannah Arendt - The Human Condition (1958)    2. Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics (4th century BC)    3. AJ Ayer - Language, Truth and Logic (1936)    4. Julian Baggini - The Ego Trick (2011)    5. Jean Baudrillard - Simulacra and Simulation (1981)    6. Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex (1952)    7. Jeremy Bentham - Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789)    8. Henri Bergson - Creative Evolution (1911)    9. David Bohm - Wholeness and the Implicate Order (1980)    10. Noam Chomsky - Understanding Power (2002)    11. Cicero - On Duties (44 BC)    12. Confucius - Analects (5th century BC)    13. Rene Descartes - Meditations (1641)    14. Ralph Waldo Emerson - Fate (1860)    15. Epicurus - Letters (3rd century BC)    16. Michel Foucault - The Order of Things (1966)    17. Harry Frankfurt - On Bullshit (2005)    18. Sam Harris - Free Will (2012)    19. GWF Hegel - Phenomenology of Spirit (1803)    20. Martin Heidegger - Being and Time (1927)    21. Heraclitus - Fragments (6th century)    22. David Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)    23. William James - Pragmatism (1904)    24. Daniel Kahneman - Thinking: Fast and Slow (2011)    25. Immanuel Kant - Critique of Pure Reason (1781)    26. Soren Kierkegaard - Fear and Trembling (1843)    27. Saul Kripke - Naming and Necessity (1972)    28. Thomas Kuhn - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962)    29. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz - Theodicy (1710)    30. John Locke - An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)    31. Marshall McLuhan - The Medium is the Massage (1967)    32. Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince (1532)    33. John Stuart Mill - On Liberty (1859)    34. Michel de Montaigne - Essays (1580)    35. Iris Murdoch - The Sovereignty of Good (1970)    36. Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil (1886)    37. Blaise Pascal - Pensees (1670)    38. Plato - The Republic (4th century BC)    39. Karl Popper - The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1934)    40. John Rawls - A Theory of Justice (1971)    41. Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The Social Contract (1762)    42. Bertrand Russell - The Conquest of Happiness (1920)    43. Michael Sandel - Justice (2009)    44. Jean Paul Sartre - Being and Nothingness (1943)    45. Arthur Schopenhauer - The World as Will and Representation (1818)    46. Peter Singer - The Life You Can Save (2009)    47. Baruch Spinoza - Ethics (1677)    48. Nassim Nicholas - Taleb The Black Swan (2007)    49. Ludwig Wittgenstein - Philosophical Investigations (1953)    50. Slavoj Zizek - Living In The End Times (2010)    ~ Tom Butler-Bowdon, 50 Philosophy Classics,

1410:We have good news and bad news. The good news is that the dismal vision of human sexuality reflected in the standard narrative is mistaken. Men have not evolved to be deceitful cads, nor have millions of years shaped women into lying, two-timing gold-diggers. But the bad news is that the amoral agencies of evolution have created in us a species with a secret it just can’t keep. Homo sapiens evolved to be shamelessly, undeniably, inescapably sexual. Lusty libertines. Rakes, rogues, and roués. Tomcats and sex kittens. Horndogs. Bitches in heat.1 True, some of us manage to rise above this aspect of our nature (or to sink below it). But these preconscious impulses remain our biological baseline, our reference point, the zero in our own personal number system. Our evolved tendencies are considered “normal” by the body each of us occupies. Willpower fortified with plenty of guilt, fear, shame, and mutilation of body and soul may provide some control over these urges and impulses. Sometimes. Occasionally. Once in a blue moon. But even when controlled, they refuse to be ignored. As German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer pointed out, Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will. (One can choose what to do, but not what to want.) Acknowledged or not, these evolved yearnings persist and clamor for our attention. And there are costs involved in denying one’s evolved sexual nature, costs paid by individuals, couples, families, and societies every day and every night. They are paid in what E. O. Wilson called “the less tangible currency of human happiness that must be spent to circumvent our natural predispositions.”2 Whether or not our society’s investment in sexual repression is a net gain or loss is a question for another time. For now, we’ll just suggest that trying to rise above nature is always a risky, exhausting endeavor, often resulting in spectacular collapse. Any attempt to understand who we are, how we got to be this way, and what to do about it must begin by facing up to our evolved human sexual predispositions. Why do so many forces resist our sustained fulfillment? Why is conventional marriage so much damned work? How has the incessant, grinding campaign of socio-scientific insistence upon the naturalness of sexual monogamy combined with a couple thousand years of fire and brimstone failed to rid even the priests, preachers, politicians, and professors of their prohibited desires? To see ourselves as we are, we must begin by acknowledging that of all Earth’s creatures, none is as urgently, creatively, and constantly sexual as Homo sapiens. ~ Christopher Ryan,

1411:From *the form of time and of the single dimension* of the series of representations, on account of which the intellect, in order to take up one thing, must drop everything else, there follows not only the intellect’s distraction, but also its *forgetfulness*. Most of what it has dropped it never takes up again, especially as the taking up again is bound to the principle of sufficient reason, and thus requires an occasion which the association of ideas and motivation have first to provide. Yet this occasion may be the remoter and the smaller, the more our susceptibility to it is enhanced by interest in the subject. But, as I have already shown in the essay *On the Principle of Sufficient Reason*, memory is not a receptacle, but a mere faculty, acquired by practice, of bringing forth any representations at random, so that these have always to be kept in practice by repetition, otherwise they are gradually lost. Accordingly, the knowledge even of the scholarly head exists only *virtualiter* as an acquired practice in producing certain representations. *Actualiter*, on the other hand, it is restricted to one particular representation, and for the moment is conscious of this one alone. Hence there results a strange contrast between what a man knows *potentia* and what he knows *actu*, in other words, between his knowledge and his thinking at any moment. The former is an immense and always somewhat chaotic mass, the latter a single, distinct thought. The relation is like that between the innumerable stars of the heavens and the telescope’s narrow field of vision; it stands out remarkably when, on some occasion, a man wishes to bring to distinct recollection some isolated fact from his knowledge, and time and trouble are required to look for it and pick it out of that chaos. Rapidity in doing this is a special gift, but depends very much on the day and the hour; therefore sometimes memory refuses its service, even in things which, at another time, it has ready at hand. This consideration requires us in our studies to strive after the attainment of correct insight rather than an increase of learning, and to take to heart the fact that the *quality* of knowledge is more important than its quantity. Quantity gives books only thickness; quality imparts thoroughness as well as style; for it is an *intensive* dimension, whereas the other is merely extensive. It consists in the distinctness and completeness of the concepts, together with the purity and accuracy of the knowledge of perception that forms their foundation. Therefore the whole of knowledge in all its parts is permeated by it, and is valuable or troubling accordingly. With a small quantity but good quality of knowledge we achieve more than with a very great quantity but bad quality." —from The World as Will and Representation . Translated from the German by E. F. J. Payne in two volumes: volume II, pp. 139-141 ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1412:Fiecare dragoste aşa cum se iveşte apare a fi eterică, izvorând în întregime din instinctul sexual; într-adevăr, incontestabil este vorba despre acest instinct şi vorbind doar într-un mod mult mai definit, specializat şi poate ceva mai strict, este o formă mult mai individualizată a acestui instinct. Dacă vom avea permanent în minte acest lucru vom putea considera că unul dintre cele mai importante roluri pe care îl joacă dragostea în toate fazele şi gradele ei, nu doar în drame şi nuvele, dar de asemenea şi în lumea reală, unde alături de dragostea de viaţă se arată a fi ea însăşi cea mai puternică şi cea mai activă dintre toate cauzele ei; astfel încât unii vor considera că va ocupa constant jumătate din capacităţile şi gândurile celor mai tineri membri ai umanităţii şi că este scopul final aproape al fiecăruia dintre eforturile omeneşti; că influenţează nefavorabil cele mai importante acţiuni; că perturbă frecvent până şi cele mai serioase ocupaţii; că uneori este deranjantă pentru o anumită vreme şi chiar şi pentru cele mai mari dintre spirite; că nu-i este teamă să întrerupă tranzacţiile de stat sau investigaţiile în care sunt implicaţi oamenii învăţaţi; că ştie cum să înrâurească alcătuirea scrisorilor de dragoste, manuscrisele filosofice şi pliantele ministeriale; că ştie la fel de bine cum să anticipeze acţiunile cele mai complicate şi situaţiile cele mai extreme, să dizolve cele mai importante relaţii, să rupă cele mai strânse legături; că viaţa, sănătatea, bogăţia, rangul şi fericirea sunt sacrificate de dragul ei; că face dintr-un om, care de altfel este unul onest, un perfid şi dintr-un om ce a fost până acum credincios, un trădător şi că totodată apare ca un demon ostil al cărui obiectiv este de a răsturna totul, de-a aduce confuzie şi nelinişte pretutindeni acolo unde poate ajunge; dacă toate acestea sunt luate în considerare vor fi suficiente raţiuni ca cineva să se întrebe: 'La ce bun tot acest zgomot? Toate aceste complicaţii, furtuni, suferinţe şi dorinţe? De ce ar trebui ca aceste nimicuri să joace o parte atât de importantă, să creeze atâta dezordine şi confuzie în viaţa ordonată a umanităţii?' Dar pentru investigatorul zelos spiritului adevărului răspunsul va fi relevat gradual; nu este vorba despre câteva nimicuri, este vorba despre o atitudine; importanţa dragostei consistă întru-totul în armonia dintre seriozitatea şi zelul cu care este dusă până la capăt. Scopul ultim al tuturor chestiunilor aparţinând dragostei, indiferent dacă acestea sunt de natură comică sau tragică, este în realitate mult mai important decât toate celelalte obiective ale vieţii umane şi de aceea este deservită perfect de acea seriozitate profundă de care este urmărită mereu. Ca o chestiune de fapt, dragostea nu determină nimic altceva decât -întemeierea noii generaţii-. Existenţa şi natura unor -dramatis personae- care intră în scenă atunci când noi ne-am făcut deja ieşirea, ce a fost prilejuită de câteva întîmplări frivole ale dragostei. Că fiinţarea -existentia- acestor oameni viitori, este condiţionată în general de instinctul nostru sexual, astfel încât ea este natura -essentia- acestor oameni, identic condiţionaţi de selecţia pe care individualul o face pentru satisfacţia lor, cu alte cuvinte prin dragoste şi prin urmare prin fiecare din aceste relaţii ce sunt stabilite într-un mod irevocabil. Aceasta este cheia problemei. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1413:We also find *physics*, in the widest sense of the word, concerned with the explanation of phenomena in the world; but it lies already in the nature of the explanations themselves that they cannot be sufficient. *Physics* is unable to stand on its own feet, but needs a *metaphysics* on which to support itself, whatever fine airs it may assume towards the latter. For it explains phenomena by something still more unknown than are they, namely by laws of nature resting on forces of nature, one of which is also the vital force. Certainly the whole present condition of all things in the world or in nature must necessarily be capable of explanation from purely physical causes. But such an explanation―supposing one actually succeeded so far as to be able to give it―must always just as necessarily be burdened with two essential imperfections (as it were with two sore points, or like Achilles with the vulnerable heel, or the devil with the cloven foot). On account of these imperfections, everything so explained would still really remain unexplained. The first imperfection is that the *beginning* of the chain of causes and effects that explains everything, in other words, of the connected and continuous changes, can positively *never* be reached, but, just like the limits of the world in space and time, recedes incessantly and *in infinitum*. The second imperfection is that all the efficient causes from which everything is explained always rest on something wholly inexplicable, that is, on the original *qualities* of things and the *natural forces* that make their appearance in them. By virtue of such forces they produce a definite effect, e.g., weight, hardness, impact, elasticity, heat, electricity, chemical forces, and so on, and such forces remain in every given explanation like an unknown quantity, not to be eliminated at all, in an otherwise perfectly solved algebraical equation. Accordingly there is not a fragment of clay, however little its value, that is not entirely composed of inexplicable qualities. Therefore these two inevitable defects in every purely physical, i.e., causal, explanation indicate that such an explanation can be only *relatively* true, and that its whole method and nature cannot be the only, the ultimate and hence sufficient one, in other words, cannot be the method that will ever be able to lead to the satisfactory solution of the difficult riddles of things, and to the true understanding of the world and of existence; but that the *physical* explanation, in general and as such, still requires one that is *metaphysical*, which would furnish the key to all its assumptions, but for that very reason would have to follow quite a different path. The first step to this is that we should bring to distinct consciousness and firmly retain the distinction between the two, that is, the difference between *physics* and *metaphysics*. In general this difference rests on the Kantian distinction between *phenomenon* and *thing-in-itself*. Just because Kant declared the thing-in-itself to be absolutely unknowable, there was, according to him, no *metaphysics* at all, but merely immanent knowledge, in other words mere *physics*, which can always speak only of phenomena, and together with this a critique of reason which aspires to metaphysics." ―from The World as Will and Representation . Translated from the German by E. F. J. Payne. In Two Volumes, Volume II, pp. 172-173 ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1414:I now turn to a *subjective* consideration that belongs here; yet I can give even less distinctness to it than to the objective consideration just discussed, for I shall be able to express it only by image and simile. Why is our consciousness brighter and more distinct the farther it reaches outwards, so that its greatest clearness lies in sense perception, which already half belongs to things outside us; and, on the other hand, becomes more obscure as we go inwards, and leads, when followed to its innermost recesses, into a darkness in which all knowledge ceases? Because, I say, consciousness presupposes *individuality*; but this belongs to the mere phenomenon, since, as the plurality of the homogeneous, it is conditioned by the forms of the phenomenon, time and space. On the other hand, our inner nature has its root in what is no longer phenomenon but thing-in-itself, to which therefore the forms of the phenomenon do not reach; and in this way, the chief conditions of individuality are wanting, and distinct consciousness ceases therewith. In this root-point of existence the difference of beings ceases, just as that of the radii of a sphere ceases at the centre. As in the sphere the surface is produced by the radii ending and breaking off, so consciousness is possible only where the true inner being runs out into the phenomenon. Through the forms of the phenomenon separate individuality becomes possible, and on this individuality rests consciousness, which is on this account confined to phenomena. Therefore everything distinct and really intelligible in our consciousness always lies only outwards on this surface on the sphere. But as soon as we withdraw entirely from this, consciousness forsakes us―in sleep, in death, and to a certain extent also in magnetic or magic activity; for all these lead through the centre. But just because distinct consciousness, as being conditioned by the surface of the sphere, is not directed towards the centre, it recognizes other individuals certainly as of the same kind, but not as identical, which, however, they are in themselves. Immortality of the individual could be compared to the flying off at a tangent of a point on the surface; but immortality, by virtue of the eternity of the true inner being of the whole phenomenon, is comparable to the return of that point on the radius to the centre, whose mere extension is the surface. The will as thing-in-itself is entire and undivided in every being, just as the centre is an integral part of every radius; whereas the peripheral end of this radius is in the most rapid revolution with the surface that represents time and its content, the other end at the centre where eternity lies, remains in profoundest peace, because the centre is the point whose rising half is no different from the sinking half. Therefore, it is said also in the *Bhagavad-Gita*: *Haud distributum animantibus, et quasi distributum tamen insidens, animantiumque sustentaculum id cognoscendum, edax et rursus genitale* (xiii, 16, trans. Schlegel) [Undivided it dwells in beings, and yet as it were divided; it is to be known as the sustainer, annihilator, and producer of beings]. Here, of course, we fall into mystical and metaphorical language, but it is the only language in which anything can be said about this wholly transcendent theme." ―from The World as Will and Representation . Translated from the German by E. F. J. Payne. In Two Volumes, Volume II, pp. 325-326 ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,

1415:76. David Hume – Treatise on Human Nature; Essays Moral and Political; An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 77. Jean-Jacques Rousseau – On the Origin of Inequality; On the Political Economy; Emile – or, On Education, The Social Contract 78. Laurence Sterne – Tristram Shandy; A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy 79. Adam Smith – The Theory of Moral Sentiments; The Wealth of Nations 80. Immanuel Kant – Critique of Pure Reason; Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals; Critique of Practical Reason; The Science of Right; Critique of Judgment; Perpetual Peace 81. Edward Gibbon – The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; Autobiography 82. James Boswell – Journal; Life of Samuel Johnson, Ll.D. 83. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier – Traité Élémentaire de Chimie (Elements of Chemistry) 84. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison – Federalist Papers 85. Jeremy Bentham – Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation; Theory of Fictions 86. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – Faust; Poetry and Truth 87. Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier – Analytical Theory of Heat 88. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel – Phenomenology of Spirit; Philosophy of Right; Lectures on the Philosophy of History 89. William Wordsworth – Poems 90. Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Poems; Biographia Literaria 91. Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice; Emma 92. Carl von Clausewitz – On War 93. Stendhal – The Red and the Black; The Charterhouse of Parma; On Love 94. Lord Byron – Don Juan 95. Arthur Schopenhauer – Studies in Pessimism 96. Michael Faraday – Chemical History of a Candle; Experimental Researches in Electricity 97. Charles Lyell – Principles of Geology 98. Auguste Comte – The Positive Philosophy 99. Honoré de Balzac – Père Goriot; Eugenie Grandet 100. Ralph Waldo Emerson – Representative Men; Essays; Journal 101. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter 102. Alexis de Tocqueville – Democracy in America 103. John Stuart Mill – A System of Logic; On Liberty; Representative Government; Utilitarianism; The Subjection of Women; Autobiography 104. Charles Darwin – The Origin of Species; The Descent of Man; Autobiography 105. Charles Dickens – Pickwick Papers; David Copperfield; Hard Times 106. Claude Bernard – Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine 107. Henry David Thoreau – Civil Disobedience; Walden 108. Karl Marx – Capital; Communist Manifesto 109. George Eliot – Adam Bede; Middlemarch 110. Herman Melville – Moby-Dick; Billy Budd 111. Fyodor Dostoevsky – Crime and Punishment; The Idiot; The Brothers Karamazov 112. Gustave Flaubert – Madame Bovary; Three Stories 113. Henrik Ibsen – Plays 114. Leo Tolstoy – War and Peace; Anna Karenina; What is Art?; Twenty-Three Tales 115. Mark Twain – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Mysterious Stranger 116. William James – The Principles of Psychology; The Varieties of Religious Experience; Pragmatism; Essays in Radical Empiricism 117. Henry James – The American; The Ambassadors 118. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche – Thus Spoke Zarathustra; Beyond Good and Evil; The Genealogy of Morals;The Will to Power 119. Jules Henri Poincaré – Science and Hypothesis; Science and Method 120. Sigmund Freud – The Interpretation of Dreams; Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis; Civilization and Its Discontents; New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis 121. George Bernard Shaw – Plays and Prefaces ~ Mortimer J Adler,

1416:In consequence of the inevitably scattered and fragmentary nature of our thinking, which has been mentioned, and of the mixing together of the most heterogeneous representations thus brought about and inherent even in the noblest human mind, we really possess only *half a consciousness*. With this we grope about in the labyrinth of our life and in the obscurity of our investigations; bright moments illuminate our path like flashes of lighting. But what is to be expected generally from heads of which even the wisest is every night the playground of the strangest and most senseless dreams, and has to take up its meditations again on emerging from these dreams? Obviously a consciousness subject to such great limitations is little fitted to explore and fathom the riddle of the world; and to beings of a higher order, whose intellect did not have time as its form, and whose thinking therefore had true completeness and unity, such an endeavor would necessarily appear strange and pitiable. In fact, it is a wonder that we are not completely confused by the extremely heterogeneous mixture of fragments of representations and of ideas of every kind which are constantly crossing one another in our heads, but that we are always able to find our way again, and to adapt and adjust everything. Obviously there must exist a simple thread on which everything is arranged side by side: but what is this? Memory alone is not enough, since it has essential limitations of which I shall shortly speak; moreover, it is extremely imperfect and treacherous. The *logical ego*, or even the *transcendental synthetic unity of apperception*, are expressions and explanations that will not readily serve to make the matter comprehensible; on the contrary, it will occur to many that “Your wards are deftly wrought, but drive no bolts asunder.” Kant’s proposition: “The *I think* must accompany all our representations ,” is insufficient; for the “I” is an unknown quantity, in other words, it is itself a mystery and a secret. What gives unity and sequence to consciousness, since by pervading all the representations of consciousness, it is its substratum, its permanent supporter, cannot itself be conditioned by consciousness, and therefore cannot be a representation. On the contrary, it must be the *prius* of consciousness, and the root of the tree of which consciousness is the fruit. This, I say, is the *will*; it alone is unalterable and absolutely identical, and has brought forth consciousness for its own ends. It is therefore the will that gives unity and holds all its representations and ideas together, accompanying them, as it were, like a continuous ground-bass. Without it the intellect would have no more unity of consciousness than has a mirror, in which now one thing now another presents itself in succession, or at most only as much as a convex mirror has, whose rays converge at an imaginary point behind its surface. But it is *the will* alone that is permanent and unchangeable in consciousness. It is the will that holds all ideas and representations together as means to its ends, tinges them with the colour of its character, its mood, and its interest, commands the attention, and holds the thread of motives in its hand. The influence of these motives ultimately puts into action memory and the association of ideas. Fundamentally it is the will that is spoken of whenever “I” occurs in a judgement. Therefore, the will is the true and ultimate point of unity of consciousness, and the bond of all its functions and acts. It does not, however, itself belong to the intellect, but is only its root, origin, and controller." —from The World as Will and Representation . Translated from the German by E. F. J. Payne in two volumes: volume II, pp. 139-140 ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,